Flooding In These Cottages

A Memory of North Tidworth.

I lived with my parents in Zouch Avenue nearby but did go to school with a girl who lived in one of these cottages.  The River Bourne is/was directlyopposite and every winter it overflowed, ran across the road and flooded the downstairs of these cottages.  The pianola lived permanently on a pile of bricks.  The way upstairs here was a ladder in a cupboard.  I did envy that child as I was only about 5 myself.  The same families through the generations seemed to occupy these cottages but they were all pulled down when I last visited. They also had outside bucket toilets and every Wednesday afternoon the emptying lorry came and the smell standing at the bus stop opposite was quite dreadful. Buses came hourly to Andover.
Joan Battershill