I'll be a few years longer in the tooth than you then CB, but I've very similar memories of that area.
I grew up just on the other side of Abbeydale Road, near Abbeydale school.The reason I walked past Abbey Glen so often was because the River Sheaf running along the back of T'Hardy Pick (as we called it) was my playground too. Our river patch covered from roughly Jack Clare's school of motoring on Rydal Road, to the gennel through Tyzacks across the river to Heeley baths.
Sticklebacking, tadpoleing, paddling, wading, damming, prospecting, and floating. Train spotting on the railway embankments and walls but never, never on the actual tracks.Wall -hopping across the backs of the house. Den building, scrapping. Endless footy on any scrap of land. Playing in the condemned house and buildings.
A daily warning from mum not to play in the river, but invariably returning home with wet and muddy shoes to a clip round round the ear...
No health and safety, no hygeine, no malice, no intentional damage or nuisance caused to anyone. Just endless fun.