Fathers

I mentioned my father's father at reference 1 and today I remembered that his house was still standing in the The Thorpe at Hemingford Grey, a name dating from Saxon times, but in his time still a backwater in a backwater.

I think it is the house in the centre of this snap from Street View, with the front, which had included a large veranda, having been somewhat remodelled since I first knew it. There is a clue in the house being called 'Orchard House', a name which is visible if I zoom in on the dustbins on the original. The orchard out back is now a housing estate. The road heading right, just beyond the dustbins, is entirely new, providing access to said housing estate.

My father's younger brother lived as an adult in one of the cottages left, county champion with the scythe in his day. And his oldest sister retired with her dental husband to a bungalow opposite. While family tradition has is that my father's father was a sometime adult chorister at King's College, which at that time took townies for free if they had good voices. I expect they had to buy their surplices though, just to keep them in their places. And I imagine he got to choir practise by bicycle, a round trip of some twenty miles.

Next stop, my mother's natal house, which I believe also still stands, but in Calgary. Bit of trawling through family history required for that one.

Reference 1: https://psmv4.blogspot.com/2019/01/fake-53.html.

Reference 2: https://psmv2.blogspot.com/search?q=hemingford. The last bricks and mortar visit.