STREET SATURDAY - A IS FOR ALVESCOT ROAD

I have decided to give myself a challenge, so every Saturday, when I can manage it - or on another day, if not, I will photograph a street in Swindon and do this in alphabetical order - Mr. HCB has helped with the street names, but we’re still struggling to find one beginning with “X”!  

Sometimes the street may have some significance or it may just be a street that fits in alphabetically with my personal challenge.

Today, I have photographed the house in Alvescot Road where Mr. HCB was born - it is the left hand one of this pair of semi-detached houses and he may even have been born in the upstairs bedroom with the bay window. Interestingly, in the house next door, not attached, another baby was born the day after Mr. HCB!

Mr. HCB’s parents bought this house in 1937 but it was only purchased in his father’s name.  It was a leasehold property for 999 years and the mortgage was for the sum of £410. 0s. 8d. with weekly payments of 11s. 2d.  After Mr. HCB’s mother died in 1996, the property was sold for a great deal more than that.  As I worked in the Solicitors’ office that dealt with the sale and the property was hitherto unregistered, I was asked if we would like to have the original deeds - and of course, we jumped at the chance.  I knew that they would only be destroyed anyway and it was good to have this information about the house where Mr. HCB’s parents spent most of their married life.

It’s a sign of the times that many of these houses were built in the 1930s without a garage and without space for one but, of course, not many people in those days had cars.  

It was certainly a home with a heart and I spent many very happy hours there when Mr. HCB and I were courting.  After we were married whenever we visited, we were always welcomed with open arms and in fact, our first home was just down the road, so watch this space!  

“A house doesn't become a home 
     until love moves in.” 
Faraaz Kazi