This is the continuing story of one house in Well Hall Road and of the people who lived there including our family. *
Now, never underestimate the power of a picture to unlock a lifetime of memories.
This was last night, looking out as the snow fell on Well Hall Road from what had been my bedroom, and was taken by Em Dearsley.
It is a full forty-six years since I regularly looked out from that bedroom window, and twenty-five since we sold the house but in an instant I was back.
It started with memories of late summer evenings, listening to the happy and slightly drunk groups making their way back down Well Hall Road from the Welcome. I would have been in my teens, old enough to know that I wanted to be part of that “crowd” but too young to have legally walked over the threshold of the door.
Even then the road was a busy one, with early morning tailbacks from the roundabout, and the 161’s and 122’s backing up, to the frustration of those on board.
And like so many memories they tumble out, each more vivid than the one before.
Of course, with the passage of time some get distorted, and other misplaced, and when you are 14 you do not appreciate the history of the house and its place in the story of Eltham, Well Hall and the Royal Arsenal, all of which will be well known to people on the estate today.
I suppose it was that wish to know more which started me on researching our house.
In the process I now know almost all the residents of the place stretching back to 1915, with just a short break after we sold the house in the 1990s.
And that research has allowed me to maintain that contact with the house I grew up in and was very happy.
So that is it, leaving me just to thank Em for the pictures, and include the second picture she sent up, which is of the garden, from the back bedroom window.
It too, sets off a shed load of memories, but those as they say are for another time.
Location; Well Hall
Pictures; Well Hall Road, and the back of our old house, 2019, from the collection of Em Dearsley
*One hundred years of one house on Well Hall Road,
https://chorltonhistory.blogspot.com/search/label/One%20hundred%20years%20of%20one%20house%20in%20Well%20Hall
Now, never underestimate the power of a picture to unlock a lifetime of memories.
It is a full forty-six years since I regularly looked out from that bedroom window, and twenty-five since we sold the house but in an instant I was back.
It started with memories of late summer evenings, listening to the happy and slightly drunk groups making their way back down Well Hall Road from the Welcome. I would have been in my teens, old enough to know that I wanted to be part of that “crowd” but too young to have legally walked over the threshold of the door.
Even then the road was a busy one, with early morning tailbacks from the roundabout, and the 161’s and 122’s backing up, to the frustration of those on board.
And like so many memories they tumble out, each more vivid than the one before.
Of course, with the passage of time some get distorted, and other misplaced, and when you are 14 you do not appreciate the history of the house and its place in the story of Eltham, Well Hall and the Royal Arsenal, all of which will be well known to people on the estate today.
In the process I now know almost all the residents of the place stretching back to 1915, with just a short break after we sold the house in the 1990s.
And that research has allowed me to maintain that contact with the house I grew up in and was very happy.
So that is it, leaving me just to thank Em for the pictures, and include the second picture she sent up, which is of the garden, from the back bedroom window.
It too, sets off a shed load of memories, but those as they say are for another time.
Location; Well Hall
Pictures; Well Hall Road, and the back of our old house, 2019, from the collection of Em Dearsley
*One hundred years of one house on Well Hall Road,
https://chorltonhistory.blogspot.com/search/label/One%20hundred%20years%20of%20one%20house%20in%20Well%20Hall
No comments:
Post a Comment