The house where I grew up is for sale . My Mum and Real Dad bought a small two up two down cottage in 1950-ish. Out the back were a row of 6 tiny cottages - all condemned - which had to be pulled down. They paid £500 for the cottage and land and apparently my Grandma thought Mum was mad for spending all that money!
The current owners have boarded it all round which looks very odd. When I lived there we had a huge garden which wasn't a garden but a builders yard full of heaps of bricks, piles of sand, a carpenters workshop and lots of other sheds. The last thing my Dad did before he retired from being a Master Builder for 40 years was to build 4 houses in the yard behind the house and move into one of them. Mum had rheumatoid arthritis and couldn't get upstairs anymore so their house was built with a downstairs bedroom too.
The blurb says the house dates from 1690 - I have no idea how they know that precise date because we always believed it to be another 100 years older - The walls inside were originally wattle and daub and the beams were ancient - perhaps they did dendrochronology dating on the wood?
That front upstairs window was on the landing and had a big built-in cupboard beneath it which we could climb on to look out. When cousins were visiting or when waiting for Mum to come home on the bus from shopping we could watch out for them coming down the road - it was the main A45 (now the A14) back then.
The flat roof bit at the back was built on when I was quite young and the house went from being a two bed little cottage to a four bedroom home. Mum almost had heart failure once when Dad was working up on the flat roof and I - probably aged about 6 or 7 - climbed up the huge ladder to see what he was doing!................or am I imagining that?
I spent hours hitting a tennis ball against that side wall ( the bit without windows and it was plastered then) I'm surprised I was allowed as that was the kitchen wall.
Gosh, I bet that brought back some memories- though the stream running red not the best one perhaps! I wonder how long this will take to sell, with the drawbacks you mentioned. Both would certainly deter me! With your dad a builder, I can see where your practical genes come from.
ReplyDeleteInteresting if they did date it through dendro. Waterside Close would have been so much more interesting than The Close.
I think it took ages to sell last time it changed hands. Quite a lot of properties for sale at the moment everywhere
DeleteI'm often baffled by street names. In a very old village near here, they have "Freezer Close" - I feel there should be a branch of Iceland nearby!
ReplyDeletePerhaps there was a Mr Freezer?!
DeleteWe must be of an age where we reminisce our childhood homes. How lovely a story you tell, even the gory bit, and I wonder what Grandma would say today at the current asking price? Do you think the boarding makes it look like one of those New England Saltbox houses?
ReplyDeleteFirst time I went by and saw the boarding - only a year or so ago - I was very surprised - it looks very odd and seemed to be a brighter yellow than it is now
DeleteSo interesting to see things from our distant past. You prompted me to check the house I spent a lot of my childhood in. I know it was bought new, in the 60's, for a little over £6,000.
ReplyDeleteRightmove tells me it was sold last year for £600,000 [yikes] but looking at how the village has changed I would not want to be back there.
The price has jumped up by 400% compared to what Dad sold for when they moved into the new build out the back
DeleteThe chicken plucking and gutting factory my husband worked in when he was a student is now posh houses on the way into Chichester. No blood there fortunately as the chickens had already been despatched and deep frozen. I dread to think how much my childhood home is now worth, a 4-bed Edwardian semi with a 100 foot garden in leafy Twickenham, bought by my parents in 1964 for £8,000. They moved from an end of terrace house around the corner when my youngest brother was on the way. One of my earliest memories is walking alone aged four to the empty new house where my dad was doing some essential DIY and being frightened because I didn’t know the layout of the house or where he was. I remember well the days of rampant inflation in the 1970s and my dad extending the mortgage to keep up with repayments. Sarah in Sussex (thankfully!).
ReplyDeleteIt was quite revolting when we saw the water in the ditch - it was the wash-down water from the factory and definitely shouldn't have been running away down the field drains
DeleteI’m amazed that the owners were allowed to clad it when you hear of its history. Catriona
ReplyDeleteNot an important building I guess - probably done for insulation
DeleteI sometimes look up my childhood home on Google Maps. It really doesn't seem to have changed very much at all except that they garden is mostly lawn now, not vegetable patch and, as far as I can tell, the outhouses have not been incorporated into the living space. xx
ReplyDeleteThis house isn't that far from me really although not somewhere I go by. Not sure about the cladding
DeleteWhat wonderful memories for you, I wonder if they did date the wood or are they just guessing at it's age?
ReplyDeleteYou made me go and look at my childhood home, it's remarkably easy to look things up these days isn't it with Google. :-) What my Nana bought for £998 in 1959 last sold in 2007 for £219,000. She lived upstairs and we have the three downstairs rooms. In the last photos of it when it was for sale there is a lovely three piece suite and television in what was mine and my brothers bedroom ... but the French windows to the garden are still there. Mum always hated living there but I loved it.
Perhaps someone has done some research - not something that anyone thought about before the internet.
DeleteIt was OK living there as a child but as the traffic on the road increased -not so good
Lots of 'weatherboard' houses in Australia. My childhood home in a large regional town is now a car park, but I can close my eyes and remember it all quite clearly. I guess that's an old age thing. It's been gone for years but when we visited there for a funeral a while back it felt quite wierd that it and the gardens are gone.
ReplyDeleteSome of the new build houses on new housing estates are done with weather board now- just to make them a bit different I guess
DeleteI remember spending hours playing with a tennis ball against a wall. Innocent pleasures.
ReplyDeleteI must have driven my Mum mad!
Deletehow times change such a sweet house.
ReplyDeleteCathy
It has seen all sorts in its 400 years
DeleteI would like to see the inside of that house but couldn't find the listing.
ReplyDeleteI remember when my childhood home went for sale, I could tour it online and it was fun to see the inside again. It brought back so many memories from my childhood. I hope you had a happy life there, Sue.
It's not really my place to add details of the house. I think this is about the 4th or 5th time it's sold since I moved out in 1975
DeleteEnd of an era Sue, sad but time moves on. My childhood home has been made into 2 flats. We went to see it when we moved back here, but I found it too unsetting seeing it, so not been back|!
ReplyDeleteNo sadness involved - I've moved so many times since.
DeleteWow, that is fascinating Sue - totally agree about living near a chicken farm, who would want to?
ReplyDeleteAlison in Wales x
Living near a rearing unit is OK but when it comes to processing and preparing for sale in a big unit - That's not so nice.
DeleteLooking back at childhood homes brings back many fond memories of long ago. The house looks well maintained and certainly has survived the test of time.
ReplyDeleteIt looks so different with a covering of boards - very odd.
DeleteInteresting story about years ago where you lived at. 🤔 good memories for me as well as I lived in 2 old houses when I was growing up. 3rd house was a ranch house that my parents had a man build on my grandparents property that belonged to my dad. I remember the 1st house in my bedroom had a wardrobe closet. It reminds me of the Lion, witch and wardrobe movie. Good vibes to remember from last century. ✨️
ReplyDelete