The House We Lived In

A Memory of Oakes.

I remember moving into a large old house on the corner of Oakes Road South and Tanyard Road back in 1956/1957 when I was around 6 years old. The house was named 'Hollins House' and had enormous rooms with high ceilings and a large hall with a wide shiny bannister, big enough to slide down. At the top of the stairs was a landing with a huge arched window where the stairs turned left onto a large landing area.

The front door opened into a small hall which lead onto a large inner hall area. The back door had a latch and was hardly ever locked. During the winter of 1963 the snow was so deep we had to dig our way out of the back door before we could get out. When we moved in Tanyard Road was a narrow track which ran alongside the house where the local grocer would lead his horse Daisy to graze in a feld at the back.There was no council estate opposite at the time, just fields.

The house was so big it had been divided into two and another family lived next door with their young son. Their part of the house had a large cobbled yard at the back with a barn attached where we used to play in the loft area during the summer. There was a lot of land at the back of the house which sloped upwards and lead onto a large grassed area with some lovely old trees. We used to call this the 'Bankside' and played there a lot, making bonfires and swinging from ropes attached to the trees. As you entered the driveway at the front of the house there was a beautiful copper beech which was cut down when they demolished the house, which made us all very sad.

The house was great for us as children as we could make as much noise as we wanted without disturbing anyone. I remember the kitchen had an old wooden creel where Mum used to hang all our clothes to dry during the winter months. The only heating came from the open fires which were in most of the rooms, including the large bedrooms upstairs. Mum would light fires in them at night when it was really cold.

Even though all of us are much older and have moved on, we all still talk about 'Hollins House' and have very fond memories of the time we spent there.

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