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Old photos from Great Auntie Nen

 Inspired by the antique fair yesterday and a bit of time to spare this afternoon, I finally scanned some old family photos that my Uncle lent me last April and it really was the most pleasant way to spend a sunny afternoon in my newly renamed sewing room. As a child we lived around the corner from my Grandparents and I would see them several times a week. I loved looking at their old photo albums and knew every picture and the story behind each. I think my Uncle has those albums, but the one he had lent me was my Great Auntie Nen's. I also knew that album very well, from staying at her house on several occasions and also as my Grandma's sister, a number of the photos were the same.


This photo was taken in the garden of The Three Horseshoes pub in Seer Green, where my Great Grandmother was the landlady during the 1920s. This photo was taken in 1923, my Grandma is on the right and my Great Auntie Nen on the left. I love everything about this picture: my Grandma's fashionable 1920s bobbed hairstyle, Auntie Nen's romantic curls, their knitted dresses and woolen socks, the chair that came from the bar and the bandage of my Grandma's knee. Both ladies always told me how the used to be allowed to drink bottles of pop in the pub garden and sing songs with the soldiers. I grew up around the corner from this pub and still visit once in a while, the most recent being in the summer of 2009 for a school reunion.





The photo above though is my favourite from my Auntie's collection. It is of Caversham Park, near Reading where my Auntie worked for the BBC Monitoring Service from 1943 - 1956. The photo is beautiful but it is more the memories of the fantastic stories my Auntie told about when she worked there that take me right back to my childhood, sitting in her front room, drinking tea from her best china (girls always got the best china in her house) and looking through her albums. I adored her stories about Caversham Park, in my mind she was a secret agent and I could just imagine with typing on her glorious black Imperial typewriter, looking out the window over the stunning gardens. It all seemed so wildly romantic in my young imagination and this picture completely encapsulates those dreamy thoughts, but through the mists of time, so many of the details have become hazy. I would love to call round to her immaculate 1930s house for tea and a chat about the photos......




Old photos from Great Auntie Nen

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