Grandad Built Our House

In the Spring/Summer of 1993 we had out-grown our old house, so we started house hunting with our young son. I always thought that I would 'know' when we had found the right house.

However,  the house we chose had no special house number - we just liked it. We subsequently agreed to purchase the house.

When my father found out where we were planning on living, he told us that my grandfather, Walter William Mitchell, had been employed as a labourer on ours and the other five houses that were built at the same time. He used to go and watch his dad building the houses as a teenager. This was just after the war in 1946.

What is even more amazing is that my grandfather only ever worked on these houses. He was a labourer working on the coke ovens at the local pit during the war, therefore a reserved occupation, and after completion of the houses was employed as a maintenance man with the Electricity Board until he retired.

The photograph [right] is of Grandad at Christmas 1959 - 13 years after he helped to build the houses

Sadly my grandfather died in 1978, but I often wonder if he ever thought about who would buy the houses that he helped to build - I bet he never dreamed that they would be occupied by his granddaughter and great grandchildren. My youngest daughter was even born in this house. So, the house is connected through four generations.