Thatched Cottage 1959, Balsham
Thatched Cottage 1959, Balsham Ref: B725006
Memories of Thatched Cottage 1959, Balsham
Doctor's Cottage on Church Lane
This lovely cottage looks like the one which was located near where I used to live and go to school back in the 1960s. If I am right then the curved space in the bottom right of this picture was the boundary of a school playground. The village primary school was directly across the road on Church Lane before it moved to it's new location. My family lived at 4 Church Lane between 1964 and 1969, before we emigrated to Toronto, Canada. I would walk past this cottage everyday on my way to school and stop to look at the beautiful garden. The man who lived there then was an elderly doctor. I would see him sometimes tending to his flowers. He had a lot of pink roses. I always thought that Church Lane was one of the nicest roads in Balsham located between the Holy Trinity Church and the bandshell on the village green. I haven't been back to Balsham since 1976 but would love to visit some day.... Read more
Balsham & local memories
Read and share memories of Balsham and Cambridgeshire inspired by Frith photos.
A Claim to Fame!
My paternal grandparents, by the name of Goodliffe, lived in a house called The Robins, on Old House Road, Balsham. (Both of which are still there, although the house has been extended somewhat and modernised. Mind you, it certainly needed modernising. Even as late as the early 1960s, when my widowed grandmother eventually died, it still had an earth closet for a toilet - outside in an unlit little shed! With its permanent nauseous stench, and supply of cut-up newspaper for you-know-what: as a child I used to dread using it, even in daylight hours, and would insist on my mum or dad standing outside, whilst I did what I had to do inside!
They also owned a collection of (by my times there) ramshackle farm buildings opposite the house, and some surrounding land.
With no other means of income, my grandmother gradually had to sell off plots of the land to the Council, but was forced to sell it at low value... Read more
Uncle Arthur
I remember visiting my great aunt Alice and her husband Arthur as a child. I lived in Gloucester and visited with my parents and brother Richard. My great grandmother Emily Wilkins (Alice's mother) was still alive. I remember vividly the house martins nesting in the eaves of the thatched roof. I remember uncle Arthur with severe arthritis and being able to do little for himself. I have a tablecloth that belonged to great aunt Alice when she was a cook at Eton College. I also have memories of my father going to Balsham for the funeral of great grandmother Emily. Snowdrops were placed in her coffin from my brother and myself. My mother says it is the only time she saw my father cry was when Emily died.
I intend to visit Balsham in May 2008 that will be the first time since the early 50'5.
