not long ago, i walked in to malmesbury's athelstan museum and "discovered" a new acquisition bequeathed by richard hatchwell
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/obituaries/richard-hatchwell-antiquarian-bookseller-whose-customers-included-betjeman-sassoon-russell-and-rowse-1806784.html
http://www.sheila-markham.com/Archives/hatchwell.htm
not the house where i was born, but my earliest memories were formed whilst living in the little cottage, second door on the right
it wasn't even a two-up-two-down, more like one-and-a-half-up-one-and-a-half-down, with an outside loo and the tin bath hanging on a nail in the yard
when i "chanced" on this drawing, my heart almost stopped
it was made seven years before my parents moved in, and the view is just as i first recalled it, though mine was from a lower viewpoint
in the days when most people didn't own a car and traffic was unusual, infant ears delighted in the double echoes of footsteps crossing the square, horses' hooves on their way to the vet's. the rattle of milk bottles in steel crates, the chatter of sparrows, the laughter of children, quiet adult voices in the still air outside the bath arms, etc
we moved out in 1954
my father borrowed a handcart from the nearby undertaker and moved our possessions in half a day
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