This week's Sepia Saturday prompt image shows a house . Here I take a nostalgic look back at my grandfather's house in Poulton le Fylde, Lancashire in north west England.
My grandfather's home c.1950 - The Danson family home 1926-2001
Grandfather
was William Danson (1875-1962), 5th 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.
Grandad was a taciturn country man who, when he was conscripted in 1916, was working as a cattle man at the local auction mart. In the First World War he was awareded the Military Medal for "Conspicious gallantary and determined devotion to duty in action." But I was warned by my aunt that he would never talk abiut his experiences then. I have memories of him taking my brother and I to the auction marst and out on country walks, of spotting rabbits in the field,s and gathering wild flowers, berries and leaves for the nature table at school.
Grandad in army uniform 1916, and relaxing in between his brother Robert on the left and a friend.
The Danson 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 - until it had to be replaced with clear glass. Half way up the side wall of the house 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.
In the living room a copper kettle stood in the hearth (open fire) and I was told that had
belonged to my great grandmother Maria Danson, nee Rawcliffe
(1859-1919).
To the left of the fireplace was a cupboard where a
shoebox was kept, holding family photographs and memorabilia. It was a big treat if I was allowed to look thorough this box and it was the photograph of my great grandmother Maria (below) which was the inspiration to draw up my first Danson family tree and set me on the ancestral trail. I was about 12 years old then
My great grandmother Maria Danson, nee Rawcliffe. with her eldest granddaughter, Annie Maria Danson, my mother's cousin.
Pride
of place in the front small room (kept for best) was the piano, complete with candlestick holders, which I learnt
to play on. The bookcase held the family bible recording the
marriage of my great grandparents Maria Rawcliffe and James Danson in 1877 and the birth of their
first four (out of ten) children - entries petered out after that.
Another favourite book which had belonged to my grandmother and was
treasured by my mother was an 1899 edition of "Pride and Prejudice"
with delicate pencil drawings protected by flimsy paper.
But there was one surprising
feature about the house, though - it did not have electricity until the
late 1950s, because my grandfather refused to have it installed. I
remember my aunt standing on a chair to light the ceiling gas lights,
and ironing with a flat iron, heaed in the fire, whilst the flames from the gas
cooker frightened me.
Outside 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. The front garden was a regular setting for family photographs.
My dressmaker mother modellin one of her outfits - late 1930s.
A
unique photograph as the only one I have of both sets of grandparents
William & Alice Danson on the left 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, a rather frail looking 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.
My
mother was the first of the family to marry in 1938, followed by Billy, then her
younger sister Peggy who emigrated to Australia in 1948. Grandad, William Danson died in 1962. Edith
and Harry lived in the house nearly all their lives (apart from short term marriages) until their deaths in 1995
and 2001. This marked the end of the house that had been a family home for
nearly 80 years.
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to share their family history and memories through photographs
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