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
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not the prize winning garden..
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...but beautiful to me and played
in!
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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.
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Selling our produce on the front!
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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
