1958/59.

Back in the Black & White days dad wanted a family photo so here it is.
At that time we all lived in a four roomed house > a kitchen 3x4, a living room5x5, two bedrooms above the same dimensions as the downstairs rooms. The toilet was across the yard and dam cold at this time of year. Mam and Dad had the little bedroom we all shared two beds in the big bedroom.

Two years after this photo was taken dad bought the house next door and the house we lived in and knocked them into one big house. He had one of the small bedrooms made into a bathroom and toilet.
We now had a three bedroom house with indoor toilet luxury living. The girls had their own room, mam and dad had theirs which left us five lads to share the two beds in the other.

It was not as cramped for space as it sounds because the three eldest of us all worked three shifts days, afternoons and nights. This meant we were rarely all at home at the same time together so sleeping arrangements fitted in OK.

Mam had it rough she was always cooking and washing and cleaning and keeping the peace she didn't have much of a life but she was happy.

Dad was a colliery overman and wanted all his sons to follow him into mining, which they did.
All but me there was no way I was going down the pit. I was always union minded and my dad being management wasn't, we used to argue like cat and dog at home, work with mi dad no way!

I got a job in the Steelworks, Our Richard left the pit and joined the army and our Walt got married.
That left us three lads and two beds, being the biggest of the three I had a bed to myself real luxury.
The family was getting smaller we were flying the nest never to return only on occasions.
When I was twenty five I married Una we had one bed our Robert and Joseph had the other.

Weird or what both our Bob and Joe worked down the pit our Joe was the same age as Una and there we were all sharing the same bedroom, it was like going back in time. Eight months later I bought my first house and left my mothers. I never had another meal at my mams and dads house after the day we left.

This was the way of things, I was now the head of my family the bread winner and decision maker I had made my bed and I had to lay in it. There was no going back!
It was the best move I have ever made Una and I have been as happy has Larry ever since.

Our Joseph got married at the same time that I left home, he got his house straight away and left home. This left our Robert all on his own in a big bedroom with the choice of two beds.

Our Sandra went off to University got married became a teacher and rarely came home again, she lived in Kent. I think I only saw her half a dozen times after that.

A few years later our Robert was about twenty three had his right leg amputated got courting and married. He doesn't live far from me.

Our Janet the last to leave home had a baby got married and lives not far from me.