Vol 3. Chapter 15 - Constant change is here to stay (1970s)

Having moved to 75 Ashbourne, within a year, my parents decided to move again, but this time they were motivated by a desire to buy a house of their own, rather than just rent.

It was always a mystery as to how they could afford a mortgage to buy a 4 bedroomed detached house. (No. 13)  It was also a mystery as to why my mother’s simmering resentment would burst out over the years and accuse my sister and I of getting them into debt.  It was much later that we discovered that in order to secure a mortgage, my parents and added mine and my sister’s income into their income. They had assumed that we would never marry, never leave home and never stop paying our share of the mortgage.

I don’t think my mother ever forgave me for leaving home to go to college in 1972 or my sister for getting married in 1974. This was added to the things never to forgive or forget.

Left with a large mortgage with just two teenage daughters still at home, there was nothing for it but to move.

In 1975, they downsized to a two bedroomed bungalow in Ashford by Heathrow airport. (No. 14).

They had bought the bungalow from a Polish man, a widower, who had wanted to return to Poland. Unfortunately his travel plans didn’t materialise so after my parents moved in, he continued to live there in the garden shed for a while.

One day, two young lads approached my parents and offered to rebuild the low wall between the front garden and the pavement. There was nothing wrong with the wall but they could do it very cheaply and with fancy bricks with holes in. The lads were a couple of apprentices at the local college. They were keen to practise their building skills and I suspect the bricks were stolen from the college.

It was a small bungalow, so my parents thought it would be nice to have an extension built all along the back. The lads said they could do it on a low budget and started work. When I next visited, I asked dad if he had applied for building permission. Guess what – he hadn’t! When the building inspector eventually came he asked to see the plans; there were none. There were making it up as they went along.  The inspector pointed out various defects to do with drainage and how the roof was being constructed. He said that the extension would have to be demolished or the work put right by a registered builder. Once completed my mum decided she wanted dad to build a patio.

Two years later they moved again (No. 15). Leaving behind a pokey bungalow (with unfinished patio) under the Heathrow flight path, they bought a 10 bedroomed cold and draughty Bed and Breakfast Hotel in Tintagel, Cornwall. They had been on holiday to Tintagel and mum had fallen in love with the house and the idea of running a B&B. Dad was forced to give up his job and move.

The Bed and Breakfast proved popular with guests during the summer but the rest of the year Tintagel could be bleak. In 1979 the Hotel across the field opposite was used as a location for the film “Dracula”. That tells you everything you need to know about Tintagel out of season.

We all gathered at the B&B for Christmas in 1978. Mother had thoughtfully given us all electric blankets as presents. And did we need them! The snow was so deep roads were impassable. Trapped indoors because of the snow, Mum whiled away the time practising her hairdressing skills; leaving me with an Afro hair style. Having always been a fashion icon I wasn’t too worried, but the timing was unfortunate -  I was to be due to be ordained as a Baptist minister in two weeks. After several washes and blasts from the hair dryer, I eventually calmed my hair down, straightened it out and prepared it to receive the laying on of hands.

After two seasons of going up and down three flights of stairs, changing beds every day, washing linen and towels, and cooking full English breakfasts, mum decided to call it a day. They weren’t making any profit and so in September 1979 they moved for the 16^th time,

“Brookside” was a small bungalow in Tintagel. A small bungalow, but a large garden with an impossible amount of lawn to keep under control, despite the neighbour’s horse that was kept tethered in the back garden.