General Chat

Outside loo, Playing cards and dominoes, Homemade goodies for Sunday tea, Real fires, Them falling out and Grandma in the parlour and Grandad in the sitting room, you knew as soon as you walked in there had been a fall out and itcould last for weeks! Tales of the pigs and chickens kept in the war, Stories of their romantic courtship in early 1920's. Grandma having 8 lb unexpected twins at home! A huge sepia picture of Grandma as Brittania complete with shield on 1919 on the wall, Know how about yours? Caz xxxx

Hi Caz I only knew my paternal grandma. I remember her apple crumble.. the best ever. And the big hug she gave me when I arrived. Insisting we all eat together. The TV was switched off in company Shame she's gone. Lovely woman (another) Caz

Hi Caz, Im on about my paternal granparents,good memories, eh? Caz xxxxxxxx

Yeah, Unfortunately, believe it or not.... not one photo of her!! I remember, if you kept looking at your watch, she'd get annoyed that you weren't paying attention and say; Oi! ...Fank gawd you''ve lived so long.. B'AVE....now then.... lol Caz

My mums father and step mother were gardener and housekeeper at pease pottage surrey for the Lamb family. They lived in a bungalow but it had been divided in half so that the game keeper or some other employee also had a place to live. Trouble is it wasnt divided evenly so when I went to the toilet it took nearly a week to reach the bathroom along a great big corridor.lol And her step mother was a chain smoker. She always stood over the open fire so she could throw her fag ends into it. Her father used to live with them as well but cant find out what his name was. He always slipped me a silver coin before I left.

I will always remember my nan.She lived in a prefab opposite West Ham Football ground.She would charge on the sats that West Ham played at home for blokes to park there push bikes in her garden.Loved doing her shed out.If any of you have seen the old gran that Catherine Tate plays that is my nan.Even the hair lol Annie

Funny you should say that Grannie Annie, I've said the Katherine Tate granny reminds me of my Grandads next door neighbour who used to drop in to help him out. Elsie was her name, and it was her to a tee!

Paternal Grandparent..... 1900's house, funny slopping ceilings, brass oniments above the gas fire, nan in her chair infrount of the TV, grampa on the sofa reading his paper, carriage clock in the cupboard from grampa retireing, fresh veg from the garden, home made cakes from uncle/cousin on the table, walks with grampa on Sunday morning to the allotment and park, nan visiting us on a Thursday.............. me sobbing now remembering it all as they are both gone now (nan hast Sept and Grampa the chrismas before) Maternal Grandparents..... Nan in the kitchen baking, Granddad in the Garage with the lathe, Granny in the frount room where she lived and her trotting through the house to the bathroon on her zimmer, granny dieing when I was 4 and feeling abandoned when I was told, layig on the floor playing lego with my cousin, doing Tucan jigsaws backwards, Twinkle comics, making hard boiled eggs for the cricket tea, going to feed the hens down the allotments, falling in the street during my birthday party and skining my knees and knuckles All such happy memories in general - now where's my time machine I want to go back and see it through the eyes of an adult now!!

I can only remember my Scottish Granny's house, it was one of the 'miners rows'..... A large wooden green-painted door, with an iron onion shaped knob in the middle led into a lobby....there were high shelves upon which were placed the blue and white platters and vegetable dishes that were wedding presents.... Into the living room, grey stone flag floors and the home made rag rug to cover......two bed-chairs stood in front of the range, over the range was a mantel with odd ornaments and pictures.....a grandmother clock was on the wall with a slow steady pendulum tick which was comforting at night.....in the middle of the room was the large wooden table covered with oilcloth and chairs.....in the wall were two large recesses....these were the beds for the family, to give privacy they were covered over by curtains, much like windows.....a window opened to the front, and a little garden.... There were two doors from this room....one led to a double bedroom with a window to the back, the other to the kitchen/scullery....there was a stone sink with its spicket (tap) a gas cooker on legs and another door which was the toilet....then the door to the back.... Outside stood the mangle and a wooden tub for handwashing, a zinc bath hung on the wall.....the back yard ran along the whole length of the miners cottages and was brick-cobbled......each cottage had a small garden fenced off with chicken wire......my Granny also had a few chickens.....there was a shed.... a stone wall separated the back garden from the one behind, then another row of miners cottages.... My Granny died when I was eight, but such was her influence and her memory that I can see that cottage as though I had just been there.......they were built for the miners in the early 1900's because they had found a new seam of coal and there was a huge influx of miners from Ayrshire to open the new pit......the rows were demolished in the late '60s to make way for new housing..... The paths that ran alongside the rows were rough bitumen and grit with weeds popping out, the main road in the fronts were cobbles, or cobbled brick......my Granny and Grandad brought up five children in this small house, and my Mum always told of a happy childhood despite the depression and lack of work sometimes in the mines......yes, I feel really lucky to have known such people.....

I never knew my paternal Grandad, and didn't meet my paternal Grandma until I was 8 and she came to England for a visit. My Dad was Canadian, and met and married my English Mum during WW2 when he was stationed over here. We lived with my maternal grandparents until I was 3, but we still saw them 2 or 3 times a week after we moved to our own house. During the school holidays, my brother and I lived at our grandparents house, because both Mum & Dad worked all week. My memories mainly consist of Nan telling us to be quiet when Grandad worked nights, 'Cos a pin dropping will wake him up!' One day, Nan opened the fanlight window in the kitchen and it fell out with such a crash. Broken glass all over the quarry tiled floor - and Grandad slept through it! Sitting on the hearth in the back room (front room only used for high days and holidays and 'visitors') toasting bread on a brass toasting fork, then spreading it with dripping and salt! Nan was a dressmaker and her 'ladies' would come for fittings in the front room. One of my earliest memories is the sound of scissors cutting material on her mahogany dining table. Her treadle sewing machine was by the glass door which led into the back garden and when Nan wasn't using it, she covered it and the table with dark red chenille cloths. Playing Rummy, Snap and Newmarket (using buttons from her button box) with Nan when Grandad was at work and we could be noisy, and Dominoes and Cribbage with Grandad. Taking the upturned flower pots off the stakes by the dahlias in the back garden, taking out the screwed up tissue paper and shaking all the earwigs onto the path and then stamping on them! Picking up the windfalls from the old cooking apple tree and Nan peeling and slicing them and giving us a saucer of sugar to dip them in before we ate them. It's no wonder my brother and I have such rotten teeth! LOL Being frightened to use the outside loo after Grandad told us about the rat that came up out of it during the war. (Never did find out if he was teasing us!) Covering the table with newspaper and cleaning all the brass. Candlesticks, coal scuttle, plates that hung on the wall, toasting fork and companion set, bowls, ash trays and the special jar. Being given a Callard and Bowser Creamline toffee or a Nuttalls Mintoe or a toffee bonbon covered in icing sugar from the special jar if we had been very good. I have the jar now and my children still refer to it as Nanny's toffee jar! The elder two remember getting toffees from it too :o) Such happy memories. Thanks Caz for putting up this thread :o))) I hope my grandchildren will remember my house with such fondness. Sue xx

My Maternal Grandad died long before I was born, and I recall my Nan living at one time, in piggott street, stepney, and just after the war she lived with my two aunts in a block of flats, in Ladbroke Grove.........when we(my brother and I and Mum) used to visit her, I remember the winding staircase to her floor, and her cats. My brother and I used to go out playing on the bombed sites with the local kids, we didnt half cop it when we got back to nans, cos we were in a bit of a state, seeing as how we were in our sunday best..My other grandparents house was bombed out, and it was rebuilt after the war, so no real olde worlde character there, Just another house in a row....had a very long garden, I recall......with chickens.at the bottom.... Bob

Hi Caz,I remember very well:-) My dads mothers house was like walking back in time, she was stuck in the 1800s bless her,but it was very cosy,warm and great at Christmas,lovely memories:-))

Thanks all, I can almost smell the places by these descriptions! Caz xxxx

We used to go to see my nan every Sunday morning, when I was little of course, and the one thing that sticks in mind was the smell of chicken 'mash' she was cooking up for her chickens. It was my job on the Sunday morning, to collect the eggs for her from the chicken run and boxes. Didn't really know how much I loved my nan, 'til she was gone. God bless Nan, and I mean it.