One hundred years of one house in Chorlton part 55 ............ things we cherish

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 would like to think Joe and Mary Ann would have approved of this old chair.

After all it is as much a part of the house as any of their furniture.

I have no idea how old it is but I am guessing it will predate the house.

It came from an old mission hall in Nunehead which Dad brought home to our home in Eltham over 50 years ago and by degree made its way here.

I can’t say I have always looked after it particularly well and for some time it languished in the cellar waiting to be repaired.

But a decade or so ago it had its turn for some tender care and attention.

Its broken leg was mended, the seat reupholstered and it was given a bit of a professional clean.

Now as furniture goes I doubt that it is worth much but of course that is not the point.

Like other objects we collect it has importance well above what it might fetch.  Over the years it becomes part of the house and I rather think will be one of the oldest things here.

Long ago Joe and Mary Ann’s treasured possessions went out of the front door and much of the first fifty years of the house’s history went with that collection of chairs, tables, beds and I suppose the cooker and TV.

Some no doubt went to family and friends, some to the auction and a charity and what was left was dumped.

So comprehensive was the clear out that in 1974 when Lois viewed the property there was nothing left.

Not that this is one of those sentimental appeals to leave everything, after all a forty year old mattress has pretty much had its day.

But possessions do contribute to the story of a home which is why all those stately houses are crammed full of everything from four poster beds to the washing board used by the under under maid.

Which brings me back to that chair which has a history unknown to me but which for half a century has sat with the family over viewing all the ups and downs that we have been through, including both the happy ones and the not so happy.

I just wish we had something from the first fifty years of the place.

Pictures; from the collection of Andrew Simpson and Graham Gill

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