Old Photos of an Old House

 It's not surprising that my Grandma was horrified when her daughter and new husband bought this cottage in  1952 for £500.

Front of the cottage, with my Grandad - centre- but even with a magnifier I can't tell who it is sitting on the step

Side of the cottage with the pump for water

After renovation to the side, and the pump still stood for many years, long enough for me to remember it.

The cottage came with nearly one acre of land, a separate vegetable garden - just along the lane but it had these condemned cottages below out the back.

My dad (real Dad) and his brother (later my Step Dad) had just started a builders business and the land at the back was ideal for their new business. Room for sheds and heaps of bricks.

What a shock to everyone when my real dad was killed in a motorbike accident a couple of years later.

The lean-to kitchen out the back

The old lean-to kitchen was replaced with this kitchen on the left and bathroom to the right. It must have been wonderful for my Mum after a few years with an outside bucket and chuck it privie and a tin bath in the kitchen.

I was surprised to have a closer look at this photo of 7 month old me below, about a year after my Dad was killed and to find the old condemned cottages were still there.

Years later you can imagine the 'treasure' we dug up in the land behind the house, after those cottages had been cleared. With six families burying their rubbish - before rubbish collection was invented. There were bits of clay pipes and broken pottery, old bottles and if we were lucky the marbles from Codswallop bottles. 

( just a PS edited in to say thank you for all the comments about doing the washing yesterday, apologies for not replying. Seems no one likes those scent boosters - so I wonder who is buying them?)

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Sue