There are several television programmes around on the topic but one in particular is my favourite 'Nick Knowles Original Features' on Sky Home. A show where there is a house to renovate but as well as that they look into who has lived in that house over the years , what they did , how they spent their time and how the house would have looked while the previous inhabitants were there.
It fascinates me to see how many generations of people have lived in those houses , something which the house I live in hasn't got. Our house was a 1960s build and all I know about the land previously was that it was an orchard and horses were kept nearby which explains the horseshoes that I dig up in the garden on a regular basis.The road was un-made until the early 1970s and the bottom part still is to this day.
In terms of personal history I never learnt an awful lot from my paternal Grandparents , which is a shame as they lived very near to an air base which was used by the Americans in World War II , some of which took up with local ladies and there were evacuees in the village , a few who stayed for the rest of their lives.
By the time I was old enough to appreciate these stories my Grandad was dead and my Nan couldn't remember things properly.
On my Mums side of the family my Gramps was a cracking story teller. He never talked about being a desert rat in the war though , except to say that no British summer weather could ever be as hot as being in a tank in full gear in the middle of a desert , I guess what he witnessed was just to painful for him to recall , even 60 years later.
We used to go & visit him every Tuesday afternoon & he would tell us about old Southend , how his old Mum nearly got hit by a bomb as she was going to meet him when he was working on the buses , she was just a bit late setting out & so luckily avoided it.
His Mum , my Great Grandma , sounded like a brilliant lady , a proper woman & Mother . She was okay with you but if you messed with her family , that was it , she had it in for you from then on . No one gave her family hassle and that was that.
One story I loved was about when Gramps returned from the war and was going to marry my Nan. His Mum went to the manager of the local Odeon cinema , which in those days had a function room . He told her that they didn't do wedding breakfasts , her response was " My lad has just come back from war, you do now " and so my Gramps & Nan were the first couple to have their wedding breakfast at Southend Odeon Cinema.
I really think I would have got on well with her !!
There were so many other stories , too numerous to mention but it gave me a good insight on what Southend was like before it turned into phone and coffee shops all the way down the High Street , something the kids of today will never know , and also what my own family were like too.
That's the problem with History , unless it is a huge event chances are it will get forgotten over time as the older generation die out . Those little things that make our lives will be lost forever and I really think that's a shame. xxx
My Gramps 1922 - 2002
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