Grandmas House

A Memory of Fawkham Green.

I grew up in and around London as a young girl. When my parents divorced it was the hardest thing for me to get over. But I had the best nan in the world who lived in 6 Acre Cottages. This house and the surrounding area was a haven for any child. She worked in the school and used to work at the big house on the hill, when I stayed with my gran, it was lovely to go the big house to see Mrs Lemet. She was so friendly and so were her children. I remember walking down the path to the village in the summer and was enthralled at the wildlife within the area. The path started just opposite the school and carried on to the village, where my nan would take me to the shops to buy the daily things we needed and of course the sweets that I needed for the day. My grandad had an old old farm building at the bottom of the garden that he used to keep his old banger in, then my Uncle Gareth would make right and I used to play in the field behind that with my nan's dog Dukey Boy when he wasn't knocking me over, a Saint Bernard, big by size and big in nature. My nan would nurse my knees when they were bleeding and would love me for all to see. She was a good natured women who would help everyone if she could. The woods going up by the side of the school was the best outlet because then there was no fear of being hurt by anyone and I was given freedom that you couldn't have in London. My nan would be in the kitchen cooking all the puddings I still like to this day. While I was just a kid playing and pretending to be a princess or Snow White or some other character that I enjoyed playing. Winters were bitter but nan wrapped me up in winter coats and gloves to play in the barn. I remember being really scared at one time in the bedroom where I slept and found to my horror that there was something knocking on the window, but it was only the ivy that was growing around the house. The open fire in the lounge was lovely, especially when it was cold and the wind was howling through the windows and doors. There was a family that I used to visit with my dad whilst there too, that had chickens in abundance in a shed and we used to go egg collecting, I can remember they had pigs as well and we used to go and look at the piglets and mother them. Oh happy days, when given the freedom. I had no brothers or sisters at the time and was the only grandchild for a few years so was pretty spoilt to say the least, as nan and grandad didn't have lots of money to spend as they both had several jobs to make ends meet but they had so much love for me, and eventually my cousins. To have a day trip out me and my nan used to walk to Longfield and that to me was the best day out because that was a treat and we used to walk across the fields as it was quicker and we could get to the station that way too. I stayed with my nan for a few weeks in the summer and hated the end of it as I knew that I was going back to the old smokey and hated it. Me and my gran had lots of good times there and she also missed it when I wasn't there. But still I would return as soon as I was asked, because I loved my freedom and my nan and grandad.

My gran unfortunately died in 1977, I STILL TO THIS DAY, MISS HER DEARLY. I returned a few years ago in the early 80s just to see what had happened to where my nan is buried and also walk the routes that we did from the station along the fields to the house and then I walked into the village, oh, how it has changed. It is such a shame to see things so differently. My nan's grave is the only thing that was left in Fawkham that has any significance to me now and how I missed the tranquility, the peace and the people of Fawkham, so much of my life is there even now. I wasn't born there and I wasn't a resident but I was made so so welcome by the people who were. If anyone does get the chance to place a flower on my beloved grandmother's grave please do, she would have done for you, her name was Mabel Edwards.
Belinda Barton (nee Edwards)