Keithj
Member
- Messages
- 817
- Location
- Witnesham, Suffolk
The thread below (probably above by now!) reminded me...
After we'd finished the restoration and extension works on this house, we held a house rewarming party for the neighbours and anyone else interested (they have all been wonderful to us new arrivals in the village). A few weeks after the party, we had a call from a lady who said she didn't come to the party because she doesn't like crowds at her age, but could she come and see the house now. Her grandparents had owned it from about 1900 to 1948, and she'd stayed in it a few times in the 1920s and 1930s.
She had a stunning memory - she walked round the house, telling us what was where, what each room was used for, how the "upstairs" was back then when it was thatched and with windows only at each end, and so on. I didn't record her on my phone (didn't think of it till afterwards) but I did make copious notes.
She remembered leaning out of the upstairs window to pick an apple off the tree, and how the apple was large, red, and foul tasting. I took her to the north bedroom, and showed her the tree. The apples are still large, red and 'orrrible.
She explained that the name of the house (Buckshorns), which we thought was centuries old, was created by grandma. Grandma went to an auction sale on a "day out", and bought a pair of antlers that nobody else wanted. She fixed them above the fireplace in the sitting room, and would hang her bloomers on them to air overnight. Grandpa decided that would make a good name for the house, which till then didn't have one. So Buckshorns it is!
We don't have the antlers (or the bloomers), but we did change the name back to that.
Then she produced her folder of pictures ... Well!
This is grandma in the front garden, about 1905:
and this is the same bit of the house now:
- and we have another few dozen pictures to delight us.
So much for the "genuine" oak and lime render that we had put back, to replace the rotting oak with concrete render that was there. That looks to me like cob - but at least our oak structure is right.
After we'd finished the restoration and extension works on this house, we held a house rewarming party for the neighbours and anyone else interested (they have all been wonderful to us new arrivals in the village). A few weeks after the party, we had a call from a lady who said she didn't come to the party because she doesn't like crowds at her age, but could she come and see the house now. Her grandparents had owned it from about 1900 to 1948, and she'd stayed in it a few times in the 1920s and 1930s.
She had a stunning memory - she walked round the house, telling us what was where, what each room was used for, how the "upstairs" was back then when it was thatched and with windows only at each end, and so on. I didn't record her on my phone (didn't think of it till afterwards) but I did make copious notes.
She remembered leaning out of the upstairs window to pick an apple off the tree, and how the apple was large, red, and foul tasting. I took her to the north bedroom, and showed her the tree. The apples are still large, red and 'orrrible.
She explained that the name of the house (Buckshorns), which we thought was centuries old, was created by grandma. Grandma went to an auction sale on a "day out", and bought a pair of antlers that nobody else wanted. She fixed them above the fireplace in the sitting room, and would hang her bloomers on them to air overnight. Grandpa decided that would make a good name for the house, which till then didn't have one. So Buckshorns it is!
We don't have the antlers (or the bloomers), but we did change the name back to that.
Then she produced her folder of pictures ... Well!
This is grandma in the front garden, about 1905:
and this is the same bit of the house now:
- and we have another few dozen pictures to delight us.
So much for the "genuine" oak and lime render that we had put back, to replace the rotting oak with concrete render that was there. That looks to me like cob - but at least our oak structure is right.
