Saturday 1st October 2011
Gwen Taylor, nee Curtis, has lived at Woodcock Road, Warminster, for seven decades – reason enough for her to be featured in the Autumn/Winter 2011 issue of Working Together, the magazine for tenants and residents of the Selwood Housing Association (Gwen’s landlords since 2001). The following words and photographs are reproduced from that magazine ~
Gwen outside the home she has lived in 75 years.
Home Sweet Home
They say home is where the heart is and that’s certainly the case for Gwendoline Taylor. She’s still living in the same house after 75 years!
When Gwen was born in 1928 things were very different to how they are now. Of course there weren’t any televisions, mobile phones or computers but you might be surprised to hear that for the first few years of her life she didn’t even have a bathroom!
“Our old house was very small,” says Gwen. “Just a bedroom and a landing. My brother Jesse had the landing, and mum, dad and I slept in the bedroom. We had to share toilets and wash-houses with the other families,” she continues. “One Christmas my brother caught scarlet fever from the drains and had to go to hospital. But we were happy – you get used to these things.”
A new beginning
At the age of eight Gwen was excited to hear that the council were building the family a new home in Warminster – with a bedroom each for her and Jesse and an indoor bathroom all of their own! “We often came down to see how they were getting on,” Gwen recalls. “We couldn’t wait to move in.”
The new house was a massive improvement, but things were still pretty basic back then. “We never had a washing machine, so on a Monday mum would fill the bath with water, light the copper up and do the washing,” says Gwen, who was 32 when the family bought their first black and white television. “But we did have a radio. We listened to Mrs Dale’s Diary and Children’s Hour with Uncle Mac.”
Gwen, aged eight, at St. John’s School, Warminster.
Times may have been tough but Gwen has very fond memories of her childhood – especially the new family home. “The house was really lovely. We had Michaelmas daisies and dahlias at the front and the back garden was all vegetables.”
Gwen sitting on her front doorstep with her parents and brother Jesse.
And she couldn’t have wished for a better neighbourhood. “There were nearly 50 children in the 12 houses here but we never quarrelled – we were like one big happy family. We’d play out back – chucking balls in an old tin bath, skipping, and sometimes on a Saturday morning we’d go to the pictures – if mum could spare the sixpence.”
Holidays were unheard of. “Our only outings were Sunday School trips, once a year – usually to Weymouth or Weston-Super-Mare. We looked forward to them very much,” Gwen says with a smile.
“And, of course, every Sunday we went to Chapel and then for a family walk round Southleigh Woods.”
The Curtis family in 1960.
Passed down from generation to generation
Growing up, Gwen would never have guessed she”d still be living in the same house nearly 80 years down the line. But after her father sadly died in 1975, his wife Mary took over the tenancy and her daughter stayed in the house and became her carer. Gwen met her husband Wilf in 1982 and after marrying he too moved into the family home. “When mum passed away in 1988 my husband and I took over the tenancy, and when he died in 1995 I took it over,” Gwen explains.
This was the first time Gwen had ever lived alone – but she says she’s never felt lonely in the house she shared for so many years. “I’ve had a happy life – I couldn’t wish it any different.”
“There’s been lots of changes over the years,” Gwen adds. “Shops disappearing, people in and out of houses. But I don’t think I could settle anywhere else now – not after all this time.”
There’s no place like home
Indeed, Gwen’s house is bursting at the seams with memories, from her parents’ furniture and family photos, to nik naks and keepsakes from her past. “I like it like that,” she says. “In fact, I wouldn’t change anything about my home.” Although the house itself has had a few major alterations over the years.
“In 1973 they knocked down the downstairs bathroom, made the kitchen bigger and put a bath, toilet and washbasin upstairs,” Gwen recalls. Since becoming her landlord in 2001 Selwood has also installed central heating and a new gas fire. Not forgetting other adaptations throughout the property to help Gwen maintain her independence, and enable her to live in her home for hopefully many more years to come.
Gwen inside her home at Woodcock Road, Warminster.
“Someone said to me recently: ‘Gwen – once you give up your house you won’t be here long.” She pauses. “I think they’re probably right. There’s so many happy memories here – I’d like to stay here as long as I can.”
