My first memories are living in a house with four rooms downstairs and four bedrooms upstairs, there was no bathroom but there was a wash room and an outside toilet.
The house was built on the side of a hill, which meant that the front door step was about five feet above the pavement, and that the back garden was at the same level as the base of the upstairs windows.
As you looked at the house from the road, the front entrance to the house was on the right hand side and led to a flagstone path that split after about four feet,
you could either walk straight ahead and walk along the path, that run along the side of the house, up to the backdoor that let you into the backyard, or you could turn left and climb five flagstone steps, that led to the path that took you to the front door, On the right of this path was a high wall that separated our property from the property next door. This wall was so high because the path that led into out neighbours back yard was about three to four feet above the floor of our passage.
If you went along the path to the back door and went through the back-door into the back yard you would enter at the bottom right-hand corner of an ‘L’ shaped backyard.
To your right would be the high wall that separated our back yard from the neighbour’s back-yard. Straight ahead of you, on the right was the coal shed where, as the name implied, was where the coal was stored.
Behind the coal shed was the outside toilet, that depending on the weather was either pleasantly warm, like a sauna or you had to wear at least two jumpers to be comfortable.
Behind the outside toilet were the Garden steps that led from the backyard up into the back garden.
To your left was the window to the main family room, which would later become our dinning room. This was a large sash window that was made up of two wooden windows, one above the other, each having two large rectangular panes of glass which, for anyone of a photographic bent, was in portrait configuration. The top window could be slid down to leave the top open, or the bottom window could be slid upwards to leave the bottom open. Or on really hot days the top could be slid halfway down and the bottom could be slid halfway up so as to leave a small gap at both the bottom and top of the window.
Next to this window, at the back left corner of the left hand wall, which made up the longer side of the ‘L’, was the door to the kitchen. Next to the kitchen door was the kitchen window that was of a similar size and shape as the window to the main family room.
Moving further along this wall you would come to the ‘backdoor’ of the house, which led into a small, what would now be called a utility room,
Running along the middle of the backyard, from a hook in the wall between the back door and the window to the main room, and a hook in the wall, between the wash-room and the outside toilet, that separated the back garden from the back yard.
On ascending the steps at the rear of the outside toilet you came to the back garden, that was a mixture of play area and flower beds.
The garden was divided into two rectangular patches that were divided by a path, and a second clothes line, that run from the front of the garden to the front of my grandfather’s wooden shed, that was at the rear of the garden, the back of which was the back wall of the garden.
My grandfather’s shed was made entirely out of wood that had been covered in felt and black pitch, which was known by the family as ‘The Black Hole of Calcutta’, it had a long window at the front and a door to the side. Next to the shed, on the right hand side was the back door, that led to the rear gulley / alley way.
This ‘Black Hole of Calcutta’ was, once my grandfather had passed away, replaced by my father, with a shed that stretched across the back of the garden from the rear left corner across the rear wall to the back door.
The new shed had walls made out of breeze blacks and had a roof made out of corrugated iron sheeting. The shed had a door situated in the middle of the front wall with a window on either side of the door.
The inside of the shed was divided into two halves, the right hand half had an old wooden work bench that was placed directly below the window, so that full use was made of the available light. On the wall behind the bench my father had created an array of shelves and hooks that held most if not all of his hand tools.
The left hand half of the shed was where my mother’s gardening tools were stored along with my bike, when not in use and any of my father’s largest tools that would not fit on the shelves and hooks on the right hand side of the shed.
If rather than going to the back door, you decided to use the front door, then you would turn left, just inside the front entrance/gate, and go up the five flagstone steps that led to the front door.
Between the path to the front door and the pavement below was a small flower garden that my mother carefully planted so that it flowered practically all year round. This Garden was my mothers pride and joy and she spent many an hour doing the weeding and tending the plants and was a definite no go area for us kids.
On entering the house, from the front door, you first walked down a long passage that led to the bottom of the stairs.
At the end of the right hand wall, just before the bottom of the stairs, was a door that led to the front room. this was my paternal grandparents bedroom, which would later become our ‘front’ room or lounge.
On entering the front room, you found yourself in the corner of a square room. In the middle of the wall, opposite the door, was an open hearth fire place, on each side of which was an alcove. The bottom half of each alcove consisted of a wooden cupboard above which was an open space with with a couple of small shelves that run the width of each alcove.
Above the tiled fireplace was a mantle shelf above which hang a large mirror.
Between the door and the fireplace was a fairly large double bed where my paternal grandparents slept. The head of the bed was against the wall that divided the front room from the family dinning room.
Immediately to your right , against the wall that divided this room with the front passage, was a large Welsh dresser. Further to your right was the front wall, which was mainly made up of a large bay window which looked over the road to the park and the mountain beyond.
Just past the door, to the front room, at the bottom of the stairs, the passage made a right and then a left turn.
On turning right, at the bottom of the stairs, you come across the door to the main room, later to become the dinning room, and even later still my parent’s bedroom.
On entering the main room you were in the back left corner of a square room a mirror image of the front room, apart from the window, which was in the middle of the back wall, was not a bay window.
On turning immediately left, rather than going into the main room, you proceeded down a rather dark passage, whose only natural light came from the front door top window and through the glass panelled kitchen door.
The kitchen door was in the middle of the front wall of the kitchen. Standing with you back to the kitchen door, on your right, in the back right hand corner of the room was the door to the backyard. next to the door was the large sash window that overlooked the back yard and had the large ceramic kitchen sink below it. Then next to the kitchen window, between the window and the open kitchen fire stood a chair and small stool.
On you left you would have found a wooden door that fronted the understairs storage, then you had a wall, that had a large kitchen table in front of it and then just beyond the table was a small passage with a door at the end that led to the wash room.
The wash room, to the rear of the property, was used for washing clothes and where we all used to bath in a tin-bath, that was hang up on the wall, when not in use.
There was a sink and an old clothes washing machine and a mangle that was used to ‘wring’ the water out of newly washed clothes, before they were hang out to dry on either of the two clothes lines.
On the other side of the washroom from the small passage way to the kitchen was the back door that led out to the backyard and the outside toilet. Next to the door was a small window, that looked out onto the backyard.
If instead of turning right at the bottom of the stairs, you actually went up the stairs you would find that at the top of the stairs, you had to turn right onto the upstairs landing.
standing on the landing, at the top of the stairs with your back to the stairs.
On your left was the four panelled door to my parents bedroom., straight in front of you was the door to what was my auntie Wynne’s bedroom.
Turning right at the top of the stairs led you along the upstairs landing that led to the two front bedrooms. the door immediately at the end of the landing led to the smaller of the back rooms which was my ‘aunty’ Nell’s bedroom.
if you turned left you came across a short passage that led to the door of the larger front room that was my sister’s bedroom.
On entering my parents bedroom, and standing with your back to the wall, you would find that it was again a square room with a sash window, similar to to sash window in the kitchen and was in the middle of the right hand wall immediately above the window of the kitchen, that was immediately below my parents room.
The room contained two old style wooden wardrobes, one for my mother and one for my father, that stood either side of the bedroom door.
Just below the window was a wooden chest of drawers, with a mirror standing on the top of it.
There was a double bed that was placed so that the head of the bed was against the left hand wall with the foot of the bed towards the window.
The only other thing in the room was a shelf that my father had put up that run the full length of the back wall.
I can not remember much about my auntie Wynn’s room other than the door was in the corner of the room and in the middle of the left hand wall was a large window, similar to all the others at the back of the house that overlooked the backyard and the back garden that was at the same level as the window.
My auntie Nellie’s bedroom was just big enough to hold a single bed and a small wardrobe and dressing table the window was opposite the door and looked out over the playing fields and mountain opposite.
My sister’s bedroom was a rather large room that contained a large double bed and ward robe and dressing table and a large window that looked out over the playing fields and the mountain beyond.