The other day I visited an old Edwardian house in the nearby town of Worksop now owned and operated by the National Trust. The house was previously owned by a couple of brothers who were grocers in the town and it has been preserved as a kind of museum to early 20th Century life in Britain. Though quite well off for their day, the brothers did not live an extravagant lifestyle and in many ways they were very frugal. The house was originally owned by their parents and when they died in the 1930’s the brothers did hardly anything to change or modernize the house. When the last brother died in the late 1980’s the house was a snapshot of how people lived in the early part of the 20th Century.
I found it quite fascinating - not the usual National Trust property (usually they are the grander stately homes), and more of something that I could relate to (though I/we did not live like that, I am sure there were people in my home town that did).
It was just like stepping back in time 60 years and to think as recent as 1985 someone was living in the home - no telephone, no TV, lead plumbing, original 1910 wallpaper and paint, calendars on the wall from the 1930's, cans in the pantry from the same period ...
Well worth a visit.
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