Country Images Magazine North Edition July 2017 | Page 24

The scullery at number 7
It was probably William who began to catalogue even the most mundane
household items and private mementoes, giving them a potted history which
he stuck to the bottom of such things as tea pots. Th is meticulousness was
to be of great use when the National Trust inherited No 7 Blythe Grove.
Rather than sell off the house and disperse its contents throughout their
other Edwardian properties, the National Trust decided to keep it as it was, a
capsule of life in the 1920s and 30s. electric lights burn in a three-bulb ceiling fi tting since one fell in William’s
dinner one day, and fi rebricks save coal in the old fashioned fi replace. Two
armchairs stand on either side of the fi re, the left being William’s which
he never gave up, with his brother Walter having to defer his to visitors.
Upstairs, the stark bathroom must have been a cold place in winter, for it
is without any semblance of heating, or comfort, as was the kitchen which
overlooks the backyard, and ‘modernised’ in the 1940s. Bedrooms are much
as they were when used by the family, with many of them holding such
things as piles of local papers, a foot-operated vacuum cleaner, there are even
wartime ARP helmets, and dust sheets cover their parents’ bed. Cupboards
on the second fl oor are fi lled with Mrs Straw’s preserves and everyday tinned
foods, all leaving a hint of two bachelors who could not bear to change
anything put there by their parents.
Entering by way of its neighbour, No 5, each room in No 7 is exactly as it
was when the Straws lived them. Gents’ raincoats from around the 1950s
hang beneath old trilbies and caps to greet visitors as they enter No 7, and a
1932 calendar, the year of their father’s death still hangs to the right of the
living room mantle-piece, near to his pipes and tobacco pouch. Only two A tour of No 7 leads up to the attic where unexplained scratches on the
top landing rail are mirrored in No 5. Rather than return down the fl ights
of narrow stairs and the obvious jostling with anyone climbing them, the
way out of No 7 is by a ‘secret’ door into No 5 where a museum of local and
Edwardian memorabilia completes a trip back over 60 years in time.
Church. Th is was followed by their invariable Sunday routine of a walk up
Market Street aft er lunch, to inspect the shop and their other properties in
Worksop. Both were keen gardeners, Walter specialising in cacti which he
grew in his greenhouse in the back garden; both were also interested in local
history, with William especially also being public spirited.
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