Advent Calendar Day 4

Frank and Rose Weston
(my Nan and Grandad)

This photo was taken in about 1945 outside their home, Norelle, Brightling Road in Robertsbridge, East Sussex.  They had the house built for them in the 1920s.  There was one bedroom each side of the centre staircase and one downstairs on the right.  On the left was the front room which was not used every day and it was this room that had the phone I remember in the previous post.  Behind the front room was the kitchen living room off which was the lavatory.  The bath was in the kitchen underneath a wooden worktop.  The bath had drains connected but I think it was filled front the sink taps next to it and not connected to the mains water.  This room made the house L shaped round a square back courtyard.  I used to play  ball games in the yard and would get told off for bouncing it against the big brick windowless walls of the bedrooms!!

The yard led to the flower gardens where Grandad loved to grow a variety of dahlias and also to the vegetable garden and into his wood workshed where he would chop wood for the fire and mend the shoes on an old fashioned shoe last.

The yard was great for playing ball games but I would get told off if I used the back wall of the bedrooms to bounce the ball off....good job there were no windows on that wall.  The ball game I remember most was bouncing two tennis balls against the wall, or sometimes even three.  The balls would be caught and passed to the other hand to be thrown back against the wall so there was always one bouncing off the wall whilst passing the other one between the hands and then throwing that at the wall. My sister and I would also play our childhood games of Jacks, Hop Scotch, What's the Time Mr Wolf but I wasn't much good and doing handstands against that lovely big wall.  The paved yard was also good for playing whip and top, marbles, hoola hoop, diablo and skipping.

Norelle in 2021

Here is the same house in 2021 with an extension to the side and a front door obviously no longer in use.