Upleatham

A Memory of Upleatham.

We lived in Upleatham, my gran, grandad and my mum and dad. I was really young and my grandparents had lived there for a long time. We lived in a row of houses as the centre of the village and my grandad worked in the local saw mill and had other jobs. We had no electricity and no running hot or cold water. We had an outhouse at the back of the house up a hill. It was really cold going up there in winter! No bathroom and the men used to shave in the kitchen using the sink. I remember that grandad had the kind of razor that he sharpened on a leather strap.
My mum and gran had to do everything by hand, baking, washing and all the housework. Upleatham was a nice community and we knew everyone in the village. There were rooks that inhabited the woods behind our house and my grandad taught me everything about the nature around us.
We took the bus into Saltburn once a week to get shopping and grocery supplies.
How simple those days were. We kept a pig in a pigstye behind the house and it seemed that every true Yorkshire family had one. Milk came from the dairy or from my uncle's farm.
Warm bread, fresh baked scones, all put on the table for tea. Yes, the times were hard but I think that I would not change those times for anything.