Here is a picture of Knowsley Road, St Helens, taken in the early 20th century. Children are playing in the road; two of them are bare foot. Further up the road, is a child outside an end terrace house, which could have been inhabited by the Critchleys. One thing which had puzzled Mollie and other members of the family, is why did the house number change? Were the Critchleys moving regularly? One theory was that they defaulted on the rent and had to move. I noticed a similar change in the number of the terraced houses relatives lived in Great Yarmouth. I thought maybe the houses needed to be vacated to rid them of pests; to fumigate them. In fact the most likely explanation in both cases is that the numbering changed because the farmland opposite the terraces was developed. New housing is the most likely explanation for the number to change. In 1916 and 1918, Mary Ellen and James Critchley were living at 146a Knowsley Road when they received the devastating news from the War Office that their sons, first William, and then George, would never return home.
Mollie writes that when she first knew her grandmother, she was living "in the family home, along with her daughter Phoebe and Phoebe's husband Jim and two of her sons, another Jim and Seth. This house at 164 Knowsley Road was known as "The Homestead". It had originally been joined to the one next door when it had belonged to the builder of the terrace. When the family took over, a central division had been made, thus creating two houses. The larger, right hand one belonged to the Critchleys. Downstairs there was a front parlour with a piano, and, at the back, the dining room, facing on to the back yard. Under the stairs was a sort of small cellar with steps leading down to it."
"The kitchen had a large range and a table under the window with a rag mat on the floor, This kitchen led on to a wash place with a half door like a stable door. Outside was a garden and greenhouse with a paved path."
"I often stayed at Knowsley Road, especially on a Friday night, when my parents went to the cinema. Uncle Jim Matty would take me home on Saturday morning."
"Another memory of those days is making daisy chains in the field opposite the house. That field has long since disappeared along with Glassey's farm when the houses were built on the church side of Knowsley Road."
"The family moved from that house, when I was about four or five."
NB Calling the house "The Homestead" may have avoided further number changes, as more housing was developed along Knowsley Road. From the Hogg family who lived in Stepney, East London, I have information that "The Homestead" was a popular name for houses around the time of WWl. The Hogg family taught the words to later generations and gave them to me from memory::
"The Miner's Dream of Home
"I saw the old homestead and faces I loved,
I saw England's valleys and dells,
I listened with joy, as I did when a boy
To the sound of the old village bell.
The logs were burning brightly,
'Twas a night that would banish all sin,
For the bells were ringing the old year out
And the new year in"
No comments:
Post a Comment