Pear Tree House Skeeby

A Memory of Skeeby.

After living in Richmond I bought and renovated Pear Tree House (on the right of this 1913 picture) in 1972.  The previous occupants had died and when I found the house it was covered in ivy and I understand at one time Funeral directors operated from the property.  It took eighteen months to renovate PTH into a double fronted Georgian Bay home.  PTH had no foundation at the rear of the property, built straight onto the ground it stood on, under pinning with new foundations was required. Inside was a cellar that was used as an apple store, the apples collected from the orchard at the rear. On stepping outside at the front, you step onto common land that any one can walk on or feed their cattle.  Also a wonderful beck runs through the village green and in my time local Chinese restauranteurs came to pick the watercress that grew in the running water. The garden behind the house, not bought by the writer, was developed with four single storey buildings erected and the outbuilding on the side also became a single storey house. I have many happy memories of Skeeby, not only the friendship of the local people but the good pint of John Smiths Ale in the Travellers Rest pub just fifty yards up the village green. The egg farmer, the Hunt that came into the village over Christmas to participate in the Stirrup Cup and wonderful Anna and Bill Genty who lived opposite and Mark and Sally Scrafton who were wonderful people.  After three happy years my business interests brought me down to Surrey in 1975 and I sold the house I always said I would never sell. My two sons were born in Darlington and Catterick and we still have has many friends in Skeeby/Richmond as we do in Surrey. Terry D King