Michael_Ingram
gone but not forgotten
It was located on the East of Eden Place and I knew it for at least the first twenty years of my life and my family would have known it for at least forty years before; or at least since the time it was first came to be there. I don’t know when that was, and I never knew what it was used for.
Eden Place was a courtyard with six houses with small fenced gardens; three at the entrance end and three at the far end with a spacious area in between. This area was called the drying ground where washing was hung, where my parent’s wedding photograph was taken, where children played and where each November a bonfire was lit.
There was one small tree in Eden Place; it grew in the garden of the house in the north-west corner and at least three of the houses had small normal garden sheds.
My mother had spent most of her youth, up until she was married living with her family, in number 6, the house in the south west corner. When my parents married they lived elsewhere at first but after a time moved into number 5. By then my grandparents had moved from number 6 and were living near the Malvern Hills; the Blewitts now lived there.
By the time I was born my family had moved to a nearby house opposite Paradise Place but my friend, Duncan Bagley and his family lived at number 5; and so, I came to know Eden Place very well.
On the east side of the courtyard was a communal wash house built against a long high wall. The wall was the back of the buildings in the next courtyard where I had never been. It was behind a coal yard run by a local family.
There were several small businesses and shops nearby. Just up from the coal yard was a small printers; across the road a pawn shop where every Monday morning, wives queued with their sheets in order to borrow the money to feed their families, which their husbands had spent by drinking throughout the weekend.
Opposite the entrance to Eden Place, there was a brass and chromium plating factory which earlier had been a Baptist Chapel that my grandmother and mother had attended.
In Eden Place, the structure floated like an ark above the wash houses, supported by a wooden framework where it had rested, with steps leading up to the entrance. It was so familiar, so much part of the landscape of the courtyard that I took it for granted; it belonged to the world of grown-ups. I never asked why it was there, what it was used for or who it belonged to.
I still know the appearance of Eden Place very well from photographs that I have; they cover the whole area of the houses and the west and central parts of the courtyard, some taken at a street party to celebrate the coronation of George VI. None of the photographs, however, show the East of Eden Place where the structure rested. It exists now, only as a memory.
It could be called a large shed as it was constructed in wood with roofing felt. It had a door on the south end by the stairs and at least two windows along the side facing the courtyard. I say shed, but workshop would perhaps be more appropriate. I would say that it was about twenty-five feet long.
I have no recollection of ever seeing anyone inside it or go up into it. What I find very strange now is that as boys, neither I nor my friends climbed up the stairs to explore it or even take any notice of it. We often played cowboys and Indians in the yard, climbing over the wall on the west side through into neighbouring gardens, past other sheds and into other yards.
Perhaps there was a locked gate at the bottom of the stairs, but I don’t remember.
I will never know what it was used for, but it must have been used regularly as it looked well kept.
As I grew older and the world became larger, I saw less of Eden Place and the time came when I never saw Eden Place again nor its floating workshop. The time eventually came when whole area was demolished, and I was by then, a traveller, dwelling in the Land to Nod.
(Note: The Land of Nod - located on the east of Eden, where Cain was exiled by God. After arriving in the Land of Nod, Cain's wife bore him a son, Enoch, in whose name he built the first city. To dwell in the land of Nod can mean to live a wandering life
[1] Note: The Land of Nod - located on the east of Eden, where Cain was exiled by God. After arriving in the Land of Nod, Cain's wife bore him a son, Enoch, in whose name he built the first city. To dwell in the land of Nod can mean to live a wandering life
Eden Place was a courtyard with six houses with small fenced gardens; three at the entrance end and three at the far end with a spacious area in between. This area was called the drying ground where washing was hung, where my parent’s wedding photograph was taken, where children played and where each November a bonfire was lit.
There was one small tree in Eden Place; it grew in the garden of the house in the north-west corner and at least three of the houses had small normal garden sheds.
My mother had spent most of her youth, up until she was married living with her family, in number 6, the house in the south west corner. When my parents married they lived elsewhere at first but after a time moved into number 5. By then my grandparents had moved from number 6 and were living near the Malvern Hills; the Blewitts now lived there.
By the time I was born my family had moved to a nearby house opposite Paradise Place but my friend, Duncan Bagley and his family lived at number 5; and so, I came to know Eden Place very well.
On the east side of the courtyard was a communal wash house built against a long high wall. The wall was the back of the buildings in the next courtyard where I had never been. It was behind a coal yard run by a local family.
There were several small businesses and shops nearby. Just up from the coal yard was a small printers; across the road a pawn shop where every Monday morning, wives queued with their sheets in order to borrow the money to feed their families, which their husbands had spent by drinking throughout the weekend.
Opposite the entrance to Eden Place, there was a brass and chromium plating factory which earlier had been a Baptist Chapel that my grandmother and mother had attended.
In Eden Place, the structure floated like an ark above the wash houses, supported by a wooden framework where it had rested, with steps leading up to the entrance. It was so familiar, so much part of the landscape of the courtyard that I took it for granted; it belonged to the world of grown-ups. I never asked why it was there, what it was used for or who it belonged to.
I still know the appearance of Eden Place very well from photographs that I have; they cover the whole area of the houses and the west and central parts of the courtyard, some taken at a street party to celebrate the coronation of George VI. None of the photographs, however, show the East of Eden Place where the structure rested. It exists now, only as a memory.
It could be called a large shed as it was constructed in wood with roofing felt. It had a door on the south end by the stairs and at least two windows along the side facing the courtyard. I say shed, but workshop would perhaps be more appropriate. I would say that it was about twenty-five feet long.
I have no recollection of ever seeing anyone inside it or go up into it. What I find very strange now is that as boys, neither I nor my friends climbed up the stairs to explore it or even take any notice of it. We often played cowboys and Indians in the yard, climbing over the wall on the west side through into neighbouring gardens, past other sheds and into other yards.
Perhaps there was a locked gate at the bottom of the stairs, but I don’t remember.
I will never know what it was used for, but it must have been used regularly as it looked well kept.
As I grew older and the world became larger, I saw less of Eden Place and the time came when I never saw Eden Place again nor its floating workshop. The time eventually came when whole area was demolished, and I was by then, a traveller, dwelling in the Land to Nod.
(Note: The Land of Nod - located on the east of Eden, where Cain was exiled by God. After arriving in the Land of Nod, Cain's wife bore him a son, Enoch, in whose name he built the first city. To dwell in the land of Nod can mean to live a wandering life
[1] Note: The Land of Nod - located on the east of Eden, where Cain was exiled by God. After arriving in the Land of Nod, Cain's wife bore him a son, Enoch, in whose name he built the first city. To dwell in the land of Nod can mean to live a wandering life
