Goodbye Old House

Goodbye old house..

Today I handed over the keys to our house on Edgedale Road, it sold back in October and we've been living in a rented house since February while Lee painted and refreshed it ready for selling. 

Its been an emotional time we moved into Edgedale my family's home in June 2000 just over a year after my Grandad died. My Grandad and Grandma bought the house new in 1939 when they moved up from London. My Mum and her sister and brother shared a bedroom there and at times it was a real full house as for some years they shared it with my Great Grandma and Great Auntie Ida. My Grandma even took in cousins from London during the bombing raids.

My Mum remembers Edgedale road as a dirt track with a farm at the end of the road (Edge Dale Farm) The photo above shows the view from Brincliffe Edge looking down at the farm towards Archer Lane and Bannerdale rd. Carterknowle road can be seen in the distance, Edgedale road is obscured by trees to the left. Most of the trees are gone now although there is still a bit of woodland behind the houses. The field in the foreground is allotments now but the rest is all houses. 

My Mum was horrified one day on her return from school to find Edgedale rd had been tarmacked! 'How could you let them do it?' she railed at my Grandma, she had so loved playing in the dirt track of a road when she got home each day.

A bomb landed on the house at the end of Edgedale rd one day it didn't explode and luckily no one was hurt, it caused a lot of excitement for my Mum and her friends. She recalls that the war at times was thrilling as they had to either share cellar space with their neighbours or run to the tiny bomb shelter at the bottom of the garden. We found remnants of this when we tried to dig the garden over and hit the corrugated roof! 

 My Great Auntie Ida made us laugh with her tales of turning up for work to find the building gone so she went with her employer for tea and scone in the nearby hotel, they sat in the window seat looking out through the blown out windows surveying the mess as staff swept up glass around them she said it was so surreal yet civilised, on the way home to Edgedale she tripped over what she thought was a body and felt so silly apologising instinctively but was relieved to see that it was a sandbag she had stumbled upon!

I have mixed memories of visiting my Grandparents at Edgedale rd, when we were little and went for Sunday dinner occasionally I was a little frightened of William Geary a tall yet stocky man who spent many years in the navy with a Popeye style anchor tattoo (home made!) on his bulging forearm. He was bald, he went bald at 21 apparently and it seems to run in the men's side of the family as both my brothers have lost their hair young. The baldness on my Grandad made an imposing figure of him almost like a skin head. He had a small hole on his head and one on his chin which he told me were connected and if I blew through the hole on his head the air would come out of his chin! It became a favourite activity of mine, 'Can I blow through your head Grandad?' I didn't realise till years later that when I held my hand under his chin it wasn't my breath I felt on my hand but his! 

What a wonderful trick!

At times I was scared of him, he was strict and liked things just so, he did not like to be bothered when in the kitchen making dinner, and I remember trying to get in for a warm as the rest of the house was freezing I was told sternly to get out and he showed my Mum his annoyance which meant I got double trouble later. Grandad would only put the fire on a few minutes before we sat for dinner! He also expected everything to be eaten and I was not a lover of sprouts, cabbage and all the rest of the greens that he had grown in his prize winning garden. 

His lawn was like a bowling green edged with all the most beautiful flowers, we were not allowed on it which me and Mum laughed about years later as she recalled having to play dens on the concrete path looking out over that pristine lawn! She and I were happy to see my children playing on a garden just as it should be

not the prize winning garden..

...but beautiful to me and played in!

I never quite kept up that standard of gardening Grandad always said you should spend at least 10 minutes a day out in the garden maintaining it well I got out in the garden but I never managed it as he intended! Although I think some influence did pass down to me as I've got more and more interested in growing my own. I've been successful with potatoes, onions, strawberries and rhubarb there and one day I hope to have a large plot to be more self sufficient. 

Selling our produce on the front!

My Grandparents like most of that generation were make do and mend and we found lots of evidence of that over our time at Edgedale road from fence tied with electricians wire to draught excluders made of stockings! 

At first I didn't connect with the house as it was still decorated 1950's style with the most awful grey wood look wallpaper on the stairs wall and amazing patterned carpets but it grew on me and although we did change some of the rooms with a lick of modern paint it began to feel more and more like home. When my first child was born in the bedroom in 2004 it was to become our family home.

I had my 3 children at Edgedale road and the house and garden became their play areas, we all have such fond memories: Summer time in the hammock, leaping in the paddling pool creating whirlpools, picking strawberries and eating them before they made it to the house and making perfumes from the beautiful flowers, Autumn gathering conkers from the Horse chestnut trees lining the road, Bonfires and friends with food and drink making merry, Winter up to our knees in snow in the back garden making snowmen and ladies, a stork perched on top of the snowy tree! Springtime Blossom on the cherry trees on Bannerdale rd attempted fires in the cracked chimenere to warm up the nights!

We've moved out of this old house.. it was meant to be but I'm sad about it so I want to remember all the good things and there were so many. My favourite room my lounge with its wild patterned orange/brown/red carpet glowing almost as much as the log burner burning in the art deco tiled fireplace. A fantastic room to relax in, lots of play to be had making slides from the furniture, Dens to be made and shows in the alcove with a chest full of dressing up to choose from.

  

Snuggling up in the reclining rotating Grandma chair with a husband a child or a good book! Laying under the Christmas tree next to the fire watching the reflections in Grandmas glass baubles. 

 

 

The south facing dining room sitting bleary eyed looking out at the garden after a wild night out with Lee or a wild night up with the kids! 

 

My children making buses/trains/cars with all the furniture!

 My little pokey kitchen that transformed from 1950's house with Grandad made cupboards too narrow to hold more than one row of cups to a modern kitchen making the most of the space after a bath overflow incident (it rained in my kitchen.. a morning I'll never forget!) 

The little hatch through from kitchen to dining room where I used to ask Grandma for lemonade and a ginger biscuit from her kitchen cafe and where my children played cafe too. My pantry filled to the ceiling with all my cake making stuff and a cellar chock full of junk! 

(Lee might not agree ;)

 A hallway adorned with underwater swim babies and animal posters hiding the hideous wallpaper! The little box room where three children in a triple bunk had a special shelf each with all their little trinkets and a candle for meditation. A floor to ceiling bookshelf within reach of each bed. 

The front bedroom I remember it as a posh bedroom in Grandads time, a guest bedroom never used, kept pristine with a satin purple bedspread across a huge bed I had to climb up onto and still do as we inherited it. Two of my children born in that room.Me and my Mum before me and her Mum before sat in the window watching the world go by. My brilliant huge wardrobe made by my amazing husband to fit all my clothes and all the kids clothes in leaving just a tiny amount for him! A wonderful playroom and bedroom for all my children. The back bedroom a twin single bed room with strange dressing table wardrobes in the past to a one time lounge then computer room back to bedroom as our family grows. Little separate toilet made into a beach scene to encourage my children to spend time in there! And oh my wonderful bathroom decorated ceiling with stars I threw glitter at it with a friend covering us more than the tiles! 

 Our big deep old bath with no overflow.....mmm heaven. Enough room for me and three kids!!

Our intentions to create a bedroom in the loft started but then that's the end, Goodbye old house I've enjoyed a reminisce, a look through old photos, a walk down memory lane. I'll miss you but you are no longer on the edge of the dale the city has swallowed you up and I can't lift you out and put you back on the edge so we're moving on to find an unspoilt dale somewhere and hopefully we find a house as friendly and comforting to come home to as you

Goodbye old house x