What do you remember about how your grandma used to live?

I could go on! Don’t know where ‘omelette ‘ came from!

Apologies

I have loved reading all about your grandparents.

I remember my maternal granny who I still miss. She was wonderful.
She lived in a busy road near the shunting yard and all the washing used to get covered in soot! The toilet was outside and I used to go across the road to the greengrocer and ask for the tissue paper which apples were wrapped in. Sometimes he would give me some, these were used instead of newspaper in the outside loo. Also tHere were ‘rags’ which were used as sanitary towels and washed when used, hanging behind the door,!!? I could go omelette

Some lovely stories here. I know nothing about any of my grandparents. I don't even know their names. My parents came over from Southern Ireland in the 1930s. I know the areas they lived in as children and I knew some aunts and uncles but know nothing about my grandparents.

I remember staying at mine when she lived in Edmonton. Her house seemed large to me but it wasn't really but to a small child it was. She had a downstairs bathroom under the stairs. I was terrified to go in there as one of her husbands had died in the bath and i was scared . She had a parlour with beautiful furniture in but we were not allowed in there. We stayed in the kitchen at the back of the house. She was always cooking or doing the washing in a boiler. I loved the smell as she used Persil and her whites were dunked in a blue bag and looked amazing. Linen was sent to the local laundry. My nan was a fantastic cook and she used real butter in all her cakes and boy could you taste the difference. I remember the garden full of veggies and sitting on the front door step shelling fresh peas for her. She also kept rabbits which were used as food. This stemmed from the war as it was extra for her family. She just continued doing this until she left that house and moved into a small bungalow nearer to us as she got older.

annodomini your scottish Gran sounds like my Dad's Mother who came from the Borders and was very strict. "Hold you tongue!"
Looking back, I don't think my Mum ever got on with her.
No offense to you Scottish Grans .

Great thread! I've only read a few posts, but I know I'm going to enjoy this thread, they are so interesting and nostalgic.

I had two grannies; a Scottish one and an English one. There was a Scottish grandpa who died when I was 7. I adored him. He was the most gentle man ever. He was the only person I ever knew who wore spats. He wrote stories about Scottish villagers and was the editor of a well-known and well-read fiction magazine. Scottish granny was small but formidable and much stricter than grandpa. Their house was a big detached one, with five bedrooms. Most of the life was lived in the parlour which led into the very large garden where there were all kinds of fruit which we enjoyed picking - and eating.
English granny was a widow who lived round the corner. Born and brought up in Leicester, she came to Scotland with her husband. Her house was a big semi with plenty of rooms and a long garden. Part if the garden was no longer cultivated but there was an old air-raid shelter where we used to play. She loved animals but a cat she had was the most vicious animal and a dog was not much better!

We moved in with my Mother's parents when Dad joined the navy during the war. 2 of Mum's unmarried sisters were still at home. one was still a teenager and was into the current music from America which she constantly played on the gramaphone. Unti she joined the Land Army. The other sister, my namesake, became a Red Cross Nurse.
In spite of the worries of wartime I remember it being a very lively house with lots of visitors, including Servicemen. Granny played the piano and everyone sang and danced and I had lots of adult attention. She took me to church with her and really brought me up as Mum was at work in the nearby Home Guard office.
Grandpa had a good sense of humour and was another keen gardener, on his allotment.
Dad's parents were different, especially Grandma who was very serious. They lived in the next street so I saw them most days. Every Saturday the whole family came there for tea, each contributed something to eat, we cousins played together. Granda was quite droll too - he taught me lots of songs.
Thank God Dad came home safe, he was a good pianist and we had singsongs at these Saturday parties - hewas the only son with 4 sisters who were all there with their families.

My paternal Grandparents married in 1915, I have a newspaper cutting reporting the 'pretty wedding' and honeymoon in Brighton and Hove. I remember their lovely 1930' s house that I used to visit every Saturday evening with my parents. ( Didn't want to go when I was a teenager). They had a big garden with a summer house that my father had made and lily of the valley growing under the window. In the lavatory they had Izal or Bronco paper and to get to it I had to go through a dark hallway with a grandfather clock that had a really deep chime and a dark carved monkey hat stand...I was very scared. My Granny was very stylish ( she wore Chanel no 5 ) and was wonderful at needlework. She made dolls clothes for me and really pretty night dresses for my cousin and I. My Grandfather was injured in the first world war and was very, very quiet. I really don't remember him speaking on more than two or three occasions. They both lived to see my first son as a baby and I have fond memories of them.
My maternal Grandparents lived very near and I was always in the garden with my Grandpa ( who was Dutch). My mother and I were both loved him very much. I remember my mother being really upset at his death when I was about nine. He had a beautiful rose garden and a TV in a wooden cabinet with doors. I wasn't at all close to my maternal Grandmother. I think she was sick of children, she had nine !

PLEASE keep adding to this thread. It's absolutely wonderful.

Paternal Grandmother - lived in a very large house. Basement contained uncle and aunt, ground floor contained 3 uncles in one huge room and a snooker table, piano and dressing table in the other. Fond memories of shelling peas for her sat at the kitchen table. She always wore a pinafore and a headscarf when out with hairgrips. Poor thing, she never really got her life back and died mysteriously in Hospital.
Maternal Grandmother - Only got to see her periodically as she lived in a caravan in a field on a chicken farm in Hampshire. Originally from up North, always had mushy peas when we did visit and never had equal or better since.

My grandad died the month before I was born so I had maternal nanny winnie and paternal nanny Ethel. Nanny winnie lived in a huge rented Victorian house in Hackney with her sister on the next floor up, auntie flo & uncle stan on the top floor and auntie vera in the basement. The house wasn't formally divided, they all shared the front door and the living arrangement was left over from the war! There were gas lights, old wiring, a real musty smell they all seemed immune to and oh, the old enamel sink! Bathtime was in the old tin tub in front of the fire and the beds were warmed by an old style, long handled bed warmer. Nanny winnie taught me how to blow my nose properly and she taught me to sew when I stayed with her. She really was a lovely genteel lady, along with her sister. I visited the house after she passed away and the council were dividing it into official flats. The huge red chair from the drawing room was still there and suddenly it was a little chair and my childhood memories suddenly shattered..
I have lots more memories of nanny winnie than I have of nanny Ethel, she wasn't as soft and gentle as nanny winnie!

Mum and I lived with her parents in a country cottage on a smallholding.The toilet was downs path under a huge pear tree.It was a wooden construction,which my grandad or one of my mum's brothers used to empty onto the manure heap,I used to visit my friends when this happened,the smell was unbelievable.We had a black leaded grate in the living room which did all the cooking,it made wonderful rice pudding.The kitchen had two small rooms going off it,the pantry and the milk house.This is where Nana made the butter etcand housed the dolly tubs for washing day.The kitchen had a huge boiler in the corner which was lit on Mondays when all the washing was done.Bath day was in a tin bath in front of the fire,I was first in because I was the cleanest! We had a huge garden full of potatoes,green beans, beetroot,celery and many other veg I can't remember.Although it was during the rationing years,we were never short of food.My fondest memories of my nan were standing on the form.and learning to cook,from being a very small child.I plucked and dressed my first duck on my fifth birthday,much to everyone's amazement!I loved my grandparents dearly even though grandad was a tyrant sometimes.My nan taught me to !knit,sew,do embroidery and make the trusty rag rug.I could fill a whole book of things I did,but I'd better stop now.

We all lived in my nan's council house. When she died (I was 8), we got kicked out by the (Labour) council as the rent book was in her name and they wouldn't pass on the tenancy to my mum, her daughter, as the rules were they only passed council houses on to sons.

Such a great thread. Thanks for all the wonderful granny stories.

The only one of my gp who I knew was father's mother. She was born in 1882 in New Zealand - pioneer stock.

My sister and I lived with her after our dad died, who was her son.
She was very kind to us and indulgent but she must have been sad. Our mum and baby brother weren't with us.

Dg lit the range every day, chopped wood for it and could make scones in 15 mins. She showed me how to iron, to sweep a floor, to make scones.
She had been a farmer's wife but now widowed, the farm belonged to my uncle and she was in a small cottage beside the sea. We loved it and played on the beach and swam all day long. probably not really
We went to the school in her town for a few months.

Granny sat in her chair and knitted. She listened to the radio and had womens' magazines which I loved to look at. I don't remember having any toys. My DSis and I squabbled a lot and granny hated that. She could not deal with us. She would just cry.

I loved it when she showed me photos of her family. She was the youngest of 8. Sadly we came to England when I was 10 and I never saw her again.

My Granny and Pop (great grandparents) lived above a bookie and Pop used to get me to put his line on for him without Granny knowing - I think I was about 8/9 at the time and then he’d slip me 50p for sweets! He was an auld scoundrel! I also remember they used to keep all the condiments in the tv cabinet in the living room which my brother and I begged my mum to do in our house because we thought it was hilarious! It’s funny the wee things that make me smile now thinking back on them.

Two amazing ladies born in different centuries, almost 20 years apart. Both lived in terraced houses, no bathrooms and long drop toilets in the yards when I was young. Grandma H, my MG had been widowed when my mum was 11 and auntie was 14. I remember the rack over the fireplace as well as the dolly tub, posser and mangle. We generally visited on Sundays when we would play games, especially dominoes and listen to the radio, she didn't get a TV until about 1970. The wonderful pies she baked on Wednesdays, I used to go for lunch everyday whilst I was at secondary school and her fascinating stories of growing up and starting work part-time in the mill at the age of 12. She died aged 84 shortly after I got engaged. I saw more of my PG as we lived on the next street to them from me being almost 7 and as my dad's youngest sister was 2 weeks younger than me we were always together and invariably at Grandma's. She let us "bake", taught us to sew and had the patience of a saint. She would build us a tent in the backyard with a wooden maiden and an army blanket and serve us banana butties and glasses of milk. Both Grandma's were so proud of their families and I'm just sorry that Grandma H died before any of her grandchildren got married and had children. The overriding memory of both these wonderful ladies is warmth, love and laughter and I miss them both.

Such wonderful memories. Great idea for a thread Mary! I'm going to try and read them all.

My Nana lived with us. My gran and grandad lived in a two up two down cottage with an outside toilet. A downstairs bathroom was added probably in the late 1970's. Until then it was a tin bath in front of the fire! Grandad was a gardener at 'the big house', gran was a payroll clerk.

My maternal grandparents lived in a rented 2 up 2 down in a terrace of similar you sets. My grandad was like a child following a brain injury acquired in the fire brigade fighting fires in the east end during the war, so it was Nanny Buster (so n,named because she went everywhere on the bus with dusters in her shopping trolley.

Nanny was very pious, attending daily worship, she cleaned the church, and when we stayed we went with her to church, and also to the Mothers Union meetings. She was always old, tall, with large boobs that our faces got lost in when being hugged by her. She always wore a navy shirtwaster, the belt sat under her boobs, she wore a navy hat with either a fruit bowl or flower vase as adornment. Her stockings were dried above the bath in the brand new indoor bathroom which she wouldn't use as in her mind it was unhygienic. We used the loo down the garden with tracing paper for loo roll during the day, and at night the dreaded pot.

She was strict, punishment was immediate, bad language? A mouthful of soap. Not sharing? We didn't get a treat. She was stern, and had high expectations, but at the same time she was warm, and patient.

My maternal grandparents were East End born and bred. They met at primary school. They never owned their own property but either rented or lived in a terraced house in East Ham bought by an uncle so they could have great-grandma to live with them. The front room was great-grandma's. She insisted on cooking for herself on the open fire. Every night she had a glass of Guinness and I had my own special glass for a drop. The middle room had a dining table and the TV. I can't remember them having a settee in that house. The back room was the scullery with an Ascot on the wall over the sink. Toilet was outside with Izal paper and a backyard. Upstairs were three bedrooms and a bathroom. Nan's brothers were builders and they put the bathroom in. The only problem was it had no toilet and no hot water, so to have a bath we had to carry saucepans of hot water upstairs from the Ascot in the scullery. The bed I slept in was very high, very soft with a bolster and very thick eiderdown. They had a dog (Judy) and a ginger cat (unneutered). Nan worked as a cleaner at the Port of London and Grandad worked at Ford Dagenham. I spent a lot of time with them and I used to walk up to Upton Park underground to meet her off the train when she came home in the late morning. When great-grandma died, the uncle wanted nan and grandad out so he could sell up. My parents bought them a house in Gidea Park. Shortly after moving there my grandad died and nan was moved again to live near us in Orpington. Again in a house owned by my parents. Nan was only 58 at this point. Nan did loads for our family, cleaning, ironing, babysitting. When she was about 70 she suffered what I think was a nervous breakdown. Eventually she was put into a nasty council run care home and my parents moved 150 miles away. My mother would go and see Nan about every 4-6 months. I don't think my father ever saw his MIL again. My Nan died in the care home at the age of 94 in 2009. She was my rock and I have never forgiven my parents for the way they treated my Nan.

Norfolk Grannie and Grandad ran the village fish and chip shop which made me proud as punch. I always went to stay for the whole summer and used to boast to other children about spending my holidays living in a chip shop. The fryer was coal powered and Grandad would throw shovel fulls of coal into the furnace underneath and cook the fish and chips. Grannie served at the counter and when I was old enough I waited tables in the little lean-to cafe at the side. Grandad took me to Lowestoft in his van to buy the fish and I remember the noisy and exciting fish market. There was no passenger seat in the van so I used to sit on a crate of crabs on the way home! They were so kind to me and Grannie always used to call me her little woman and sing me lovely songs whilst I was cuddled up in bed dropping off to sleep.

My mother’s mother was a hoot. Widowed when mother was 9 she didn’t get on with my father or even with my mother, resenting that they had left her on her own in the north and moved down south before they married. This in spite of the fact that she had a wonderful second husband. She was very deaf and had a hearing aid with a wire which went down to her waist where she wore a quite large black box with an on/off switch. She delighted in snapping at my father and when he tried to reply she would hit the off switch and sit back with a smirk on her face. Her conversations were peppered with references to ‘lavvies’ and pubs. Everywhere she talked about it seemed was close to a lavvy. My parents had worked hard at hiding their working class origins and we found their discomfort very funny. We lived too far away to see her often but enjoyed the few times we visited.
Father’s mother was a severe lady who was always in the kitchen, never said much and certainly didn’t go in for hugs. My auntie would take us down narrow stairs into the cellar which was hugely exciting with a long butler type sink and an enormous mangle, marble topped table and meat store. Very cold and a little creepy. We were evacuated to their house during the war but I was a toddler and don’t remember that at all.

There are several chapters here already!
I’ve enjoyed dipping in and out of it since I added mine last night.
Such an interesting variety of family backgrounds.

This is beautiful and resonates with me. The constancy of hardship, endurance and love permeates it. My Granny was a hard working lovely lady. We lived with her when my Grandad died. When he was about good behaviour and silence was the order of the day. Not endearing but tolerable. Outside toilet with what we called 'room and kitchen' was accommodation. Spartan indeed but seemed totally acceptable to me as a child. Didn't know anything different and, crucially, I was loved to bits. I always remember my Granny doing piles of washing on a scrubbing board with a large square bar of soap (never seemed to get smaller!). In winter she had what she called 'hacks' on her hands as a result of this scrubbing and she used green 'stuff' called 'Zambuck' to give her some relief. Strange the things we remember..... She gave me the most profound teaching of the basics of cooking. The soups, stews and other tasty economic dishes. Wonderful woman. Yep, by comparison, many of us live in Shangri-la.