One hundred years of one house in Chorlton part 52 ............ shared anniversaries

The continuing story of the house Joe and Mary Ann Scott lived in for over 50 years and the families that have lived here since.*

I am not sure how we will mark the centenary of the house or for that matter when we should do it.

My feeling is that it would be best to look for the time one hundred years ago when Joe and Mary Ann moved in, but the smart money is for when the Mr Scott senior finished the job with the last coat of outside paint for the front door.

But what makes it a tad more significant is that this year will also mark the centenary of one of the houses I grew up in which even now fifty years later remains a place I have very fond memories of.

And the two properties could not be more different.  Joe and Mary Ann’s house was a solid end terrace, fitted out with electricity and was one of a series of building projects which the family undertook from the opening decades of the 20th century well into the 1940s.

By contrast 294 Well Hall Road was a smaller more modest property which still retained some of the original fittings including the bracket for gas lights and a communal path in the back garden which linked all four houses.

Moreover 294 Well Hall was a part of grand plan by the Government to build in less than a year an estate for the families of men and women who were employed at Woolwich Arsenal that great factory for the manufacture of weapons and shells.

And of course it being 1915 the demand for more labour at the Arsenal was paramount.

Even so the creation of what is still regarded as a fine example of a garden suburb in less than a year was remarkable.

But despite the differences theses two houses have much in common.  Not only were they built during a period when were at war but they were both built at a time when the surrounding area was still pretty much open farmland.

From their back window Joe and Mary Ann had views across fields out past the Brook while on either side of the terrace there were farmhouses which dated back into the 18th century.

Likewise the first residents of 294 could look up at the woods on Shooters Hill and wander off towards the farm land which now makes up the Kdbrook estate.

All of which brings me back to that anniversary.

Now the preparations to mark the centenary of the Well Hall estate have been laid for a long time and there will be many different activities during the course of the year.

But I am not sure about Joe and Mary Ann’s house.  By all accounts they were a quiet couple liked by many who lived a modest life, and as they were here for nearly 60 years I rather think we will respect that fact and let the event pass with little fuss.

After all I have only clocked up 38 years here.

Picture;  Joe and Mary Ann’s house, 1975, from the collection of Lois Sparshot, and 294 Well Hall Road, 2014 courtesy of Chrissie Rose

*The story of a house,
http://chorltonhistory.blogspot.co.uk/search/label/The%20story%20of%20a%20house