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From birth (1943) until I was about 16 years old (1959) I lived with my family at Clodagh, Station Road, Earl Shilton. It was a three bedroomed detached house with a large garden. At that time we had a coal fire in both the front and back rooms. The back room was the dining room and the front room was used as a lounge. We had a kitchen with a coke stove for heating the water, and a pump to supply water from a well under the outside patio. The pantry was under the stairs.
Upstairs was my parents' bedroom, my brother's bedroom at the rear that I shared for many years, and a smaller bedroom on the front, which eventually became mine. There was a bathroom with an airing cupboard, a bath and toilet, facilities that were very desirable in those days (1950's). One curiosity is that I can never remember the light bulb in the bathroom ever being changed!
There were carpets in both downstairs' rooms but the hall and stairs were finished on polished woodwork with a stair carpet. The floors of the bedrooms and bathroom were covered by lino and rugs. We had many happy days there. I was the youngest and I cannot say I had an unhappy childhood whilst at Clodagh.
Outside were a toilet, coal house and dad's shed where he would repair all our shoes. The shed was very rickety but it always seemed an adventure to enter. It seemed a mysterious place but quite ordinary. Round the back of the shed was where the coke was stored and next to the coke-hole was a large pampas grass.
The garden was large with three lawns, a fishpond and a vegetable garden with a pear and apple tree, raspberry canes, and gooseberry bushes. There was a greenhouse, a central path and a path beside the privet hedge separating us from our neighbours. There was a wooden arbour where we occasionally had a visit from a woodpecker. Later my brother Norman would construct an aviary where he kept and bred budgerigars. I still have the wound where one of them bit me with its beak.
Memories of Clodagh include the day when we scooped up the coke and put it in the stove, but in amongst the coke was a frog that was covered in coke dust and looked just like a piece of coke. However, when mother opened the top of the stove the 'piece of coke' jumped out. Oh how she screamed and oh what trouble ensued when she found out it was me who had tricked her.
There was also the time when I tried to climb up the kitchen cabinet and it fell on top of me, spilling the crockery etc., which smashed on the floor. Fortunately I managed to catch the prize glass celery jar. There was also the time when Norman tried to adapt a toy trolley bus I had been given to run between the back and front rooms.
The garden at Clodagh backed onto a field known as the Old Brickyard although we termed it just as the Brickyard. To my friends and I this was an adventure playground. It had a grass area that was grazed by Wally Page's cow or a horse, and then there were areas of scrub, ponds and marshland. The ponds were home to newts and other wildlife. The marshes were visited almost annually during the early 1950's by snipe and other interesting birds.
We would play for hours there, make camps and defend ourselves from visiting marauders, the Highfield Street gang etc. During the winter, the ponds would freeze over and when they were safe enough to bear our weight, oh what fun we had. There were small hills down which we would sledge.
The Brickyard would lead onto other interesting places, The Town lands and the footpath leading over the fields to Elmesthorpe Station, Breach Lane. There were the Coldwells with their cowslips, kingfingers (common orchids), mayblobs (marsh marigolds), the quarries towards Potters Marston, the rabbit warren near Huit Farm and over the fields to Stoney Stanton and Burbage Woods. As we got older all these places would be explored including fields etc., which were not on public footpaths. One dark night I remember exploring fields in the dark - it seemed that I was so free under the stars. I went places I would not dare in the light!!
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