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Friday 8 October 2021

Memories of Grandad's Garden: Sepia Saturday

This week's Sepia Saturday prompt photograph  shows a young girl in a garden, c.1920s.  My grandfather's front garden in Poulton-le-Fylde, Lancashire  was the  setting for many a family photograph over the years.

Here is my mother Kathleen Danson, c.1930's modelling one of her dresses in the front garden of my grandfather's house.  Mum left school at the age of 14 and was apprenticed to a tailor.  She set up a small dressmaking business from the home, working on an old Singer treadle machine. She was still sewing her own clothes  and making a patchwork bedstread in her 80's, and I often think that "Happiness is Stitching" would be her motto. 

My grandfather's house c.1950 - a family home 1926-2001

Grandfather was William Danson (1875-1962), son of James Danson and Maria Rawcliffe. In 1907 he married Alice English and they had five children - Edith, Kathleen (my mother), Harry, Billy, with baby of the family Peggy, born after the First World War. Alice died in 1945 and I never knew her.
 
The family moved into the semi-detached house in 1926.   I still have the receipt for the deposit of £67. It looks quite a big house in the photograph, but, with only three small bedrooms, it must have still been a squash for William,  Alice,  three daughters and two sons.
 
The front door had a round stained glass window which I thought was very posh.  Half way up the side wall was a small hatch door which revealed the coal shute where the coal men emptied  their sacks down into a small cellar under the stairs. My uncle Harry (a joiner)  much later took on the hard task to clear it all out to create a much needed "glory hole" and utility room.   He also modernised the kitchen and installed French windows in the living  room at the back of the house. 
 
The side trellis gate was later taken down and a driveway created to take my uncle's motor bike and side car, and later a car.  Grandad's hen house at the back then became the garage.  

The large gardens were my grandfather's and later my uncle's pride and joy - with floral displays in the  front and  productive vegetables and fruit  grown at the back. 

 


Another outfit of Mum's 

 

A unique phonograph as the only one I have of both sets of grandparents William & Alice Danson and Albert and Mary Weston, taken in the garden after my parent's wedding in 1938

             Sisters Peggy, Edith and Kathleen Danson  with their mother Alice  c.1941

 

1941 and my father is setting out for war service in the RAF.  Here with Mum on the right and her sister, my aunt Edith on the left

                                             My aunt Edith with a little podgy me c 1944.


 

My brother and I in my long dress for the local Gala Day, c.1951   

Full circle  - my mother with my uncle  Harry, c.1990s.  The death of Harry in 2001 marked the end of the house that had been a family home for nearly 80 years.  

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Sepia Saturday gives an opportunity for genealogy bloggers  
to share their family history and memories through photographs
 
  Click  HERE to see how other Sepia Saturday blogger 
have related their garden tales.

12 comments:

  1. Many of my family photos are on front steps of different homes. This one certainly had many memories for your family! How great to have all these photos sharing their experience in that home.

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    1. Thank you, Barbara, for your comment. It was only when I came to sort through my photographs, I realised how many I had against the background of my grandfather's House.

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  2. Okay, now I have to go looking for gardens and brick! Your lovely family photos match the prompt in both ways! Your grandfather had quite the handsome house. All that brick and bay or bow windows to boot. Love it! I'm surprised it only boasted three small bedrooms, though. It looks quite large. Were the downstairs quarters more spacious?

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  3. Thank you for your comment,Gail. To answer your question - no the downstairs was not particularly spacious a small kitchen that you could not eat in, a reasonable sized living room, with an open coal fire as the main heating in the house, with three piece suite, dining table and sideboard, but it would be crowded for a family of seven, and a smaller front room, the parlour for best with the piano, china cabinet and bookcase and a small table. in British houses rooms tended to be small unless you were really well off. The other unusual feature was it had no electricity until the mid 50s, only gas, because my grandfather would not have it installed. In the end my aunt waited until grandad was staying with us (cross country by this time) and had it installed.

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  4. Happiness is Stitching. Yes! I love to sew, clothing & quilts. My sewing room makes me smile. Your photographs are wonderful. Thanks for giving us a glimpse into your family.

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  5. A wonderful set of family photos. I am with your mother - I love sewing and am still making clothing and quilts at over 80.

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  6. My mum used to make clothes both for herself and the rest of the family, but never 'professionally' (i.e. never made anything to sell). Alas I did not inherit her talent, sewing was never really my thing. I do own a sewing machine but it is only used for "mending and fixing".

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  7. You've picked perfect photos for this weekend's theme. Like everyone else, I have generations of family photos taken in a front garden/yard. My mother grew up in a similar three bedroom house outside of Washington DC (though not as beautifully decorated as your grandparent's) and I've often thought its front made an elegant frame for photos celebrating birthdays, weddings, anniversaries, etc.

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  8. Such a nice photo of your mom and her lovely dress at the beginning of this post. I imagine you were the beneficiary of her handiwork growing up. My grandmother had quite a garden and many pictures taken there, but of course, we can't fully enjoy the beauty of their colorful flowers.

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  9. Posing was the right word for your grandmother's photo at the top. Lots of spirit.

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  10. Such a moving post and how wonderful that you have photos of your family at your grandparents' house. The structure and windows are indeed impressive, and the house weathered time well. I particularly love the bay window panes. I can see why your mother went into dressmaking. Her outfits in these photos are stunning.

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  11. Thank you all for sharing your kind comments and your comments on my mother's sewing skills. I shared her int-erst in crafts, but not, I admit, her ability. I did make some attempt to make my own shift resses and skirts in the mid 1960s, but they did not match what you could buy at reasonable prices in the shops. I did become quite adept at making little popover pinafore dresses for my toddler daughter But the bottom line was I did not inherit Mum' talents!

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