Going back to where you were raised

This is the house I was brought up in, a small North Devon village. The chapel beside it is now flats as is the house I grew up in. My dad sold that house in 1969 for £6000, God knows what it’s worth now. I would say 80% of the houses in that village are now holiday lets, very very sad… when we had it it was a guest house and after my brother and I had done the chores we used to jump over the wall and run down the fields to the beach, happy happy days…

I went back about 10 years ago and was amazed to find the area is now considered trendy and is expensive to buy in. My dad bought our house for £2000 in 1952 they now go for near to £1,000,000 in that road. I wouldn't want to live in London now been gone for too long.

I do go back, and until my mother died, I enjoyed the trip back. But now I hate going. It's too painful, even though my brother still lives there.

I was two years old when my parents bought their first house so all my memories are of that home. My mum never moved so I saw a lot of the house and neighbourhood when I visited.

I moved away when I got married but ten years ago I decided to move back to childhood area and ended up living in my old bedroom for six months until I found the right house for me.

Mum died a couple of months ago but we still own the house as there are tenants in it ( used rent to pay towards mums care home bills) and we can’t sell until end of the lease next year.

It will be emotional selling the house after 64 years of it being our family home.

I no longer live in Liverpool (city of my birth) but one visit to my sister I suggested we go back and look at our old house. She reluctantly agreed.

The houses were flat fronted terraces with a railyway line running along the back. Classic working class from the 1930s. There is not a lot you can do to improve them except to change the windows, which the new owners had done. We were standing on the pavement when a woman came out and asked if we needed help. She probably wondered what two elderly women were doing standing in front of her house.

I explained that we were both born in the house and it was just a sentimental visit. Surprisingly she asked if we would like to come in and look around. My sister quickly said "no thank you we have to be going" and walked back to the car. I could tell she was upset. So I thanked the women for her offer and assured her we would not be taking up her time.

As we drove away my sister said she could not bear to look around the house because it would remind her of the fact that both our parents had died within 2 years of one another. They had not died in that particular house but I think it brought back painful memories of our childhood. My sister was always the golden princess so I guess the "painful" memories should have been mine.

Chestnut

Just to show what I mean, a picture from 1958 and another from 2001 (21 years ago!) There are cars both sides in the old picture and yet the street still looks wider. What is going on? The street is shrinking!

I grew up in a house just like these, but in West London. I remember playing in the snow in the 1960 snow fall!
The house is now at least 3 flats!

https://www.gransnet.com/uploads/talk/202208/medium-47250-waldemar-ave-1958-2.jpg https://www.gransnet.com/uploads/talk/202208/medium-466567-waldemar-ave-2001-2.jpg

Just to show what I mean, a picture from 1958 and another from 2001 (21 years ago!) There are cars both sides in the old picture and yet the street still looks wider. What is going on? The street is shrinking!

Streetview is wonderful. I have visited not only my own areas but where my parents were born and my ancestors!

Much of London was bombed and redeveloped but where the original houses remain they are usually very well maintained now because you need money to live there. They look so much better than they did 50-100 years ago.

My own Victorian street in SW London looks fairly smart now. What I really notice is that the street itself seemed much bigger and wider back then. Now it looks smaller and cramped. There are cars parked either side now, but even so the street actually looks smaller. I have photographic proof with a picture taken in the 1950s! Is it possible for buildings to move?

I went back years ago, saw my primary school which hadn't really changed and then went to look at the house where we grew up.

Everything looked the same but smaller somehow. The garden was well tended which would have pleased my dad as he was always very particular.

I've retired nearly back. Though still have lots of relations there.All friendly people especially if we talk in dialect.
It's just a small run-down market town that used to have beautiful Georgian houses around a pretty market square. The docks have all been tidied up and new housing built but it still was not the place I wanted to return to.
I now realise my school must have been an early Victorian one ,and the house I was born in has been knocked down.

I don't even want to look at a Google map of the place, because I want to remember it as it was.

This is different from my sons who have maintained regular and quite frequent visits to their beloved boyhood home, and consequently have not seen abrupt changes.

I’m another Streetview user. My early childhood area hasn’t changed except getting older.
Places we lived in Liverpool - the long row of terraces looks much the same, but the area with our ‘posher’ house with the gardens looks more run down. I wouldn’t go back.

I was brought up in the Welsh valleys. The particular town where my grandparents lived is very run down now. But the people are still wonderful. Many happy memories.

I was brought up in Scotland 2 miles from the nearest town but few buses each day. It was very much "country living" which was great as a youngster but not so good in my teenage years. I have never been back and I do not think I will ever return to Scotland.

I spent my early years in Harrogate and often go back as it’s only 70 miles and a nice day out.
The house is still very well maintained, but now split into flats. My DM loved living there, until she was forced to move back to Durham, where she was later diagnosed with RA which, as the years passed, took over her body and mind.

I don’t go back and the inner city area has been raized to the ground.
No happy memories for me apart from the freedom of the streets with gangs of kids who played on bomb sites.

Interesting how small schools look especially. When you are little they seem so huge. One school I went to had the tiniest concrete playground but when I went there as a pupil it seemed really large. Sadly my main school has been bulldozed, even though it was of historical interest. No soul, some of these town planners.

After living abroad and various places in England, we are settled about an hour from where I grew up. The last time I went back was in 2017 when my brother was visiting from Australia. He insisted on going to our childhood home, knocking on the door and asking to have a look round. We hadn’t seen it since 1976. Well, the son of the house was visiting so he let us have a look. Bizarre.

yes I've been back. Everything seemed so small to what I remembered... I go on streetview and check out the area and also my places of work in London to see if they are still there.

Last week I took my grandson to Torquay to see the house where I was raised and the little park I played in. It's only about 15/20 miles from here, so I do go back sometimes.
I'm glad to see that the park is still lovely and well kept.
And my old house looks cared for.

Yes I've been back. It was a dump then. It's even more of a dump now.

I was born in Mauritius and left when I was 21. Went back several times as my parents still lived there. The last time I went back was 20: years ago. The change from Third World post war poverty to almost First World wealth was stunning!
I didn’t visit the immediate area where I was brought up, but the surroundings were unrecognisable.

I went back several years ago to take my father's body to the family grave in East London. The terraced house we lived in was still there but the whole row had been 'refurbished and probably very expensive now. I enjoyed the visit and have happy memories of living there with lots of family in the nearby roads ...many gone now or moved away.

My folks moved a lot, but I’ve been back once or twice to two Surrey areas where we lived from when I was maybe 3-6, and then 6-9, when we moved 100 miles away - and that wasn’t the last move, there were 4 more.

The 6-9 house is much as I remembered, but the 3-6 was nothing like - I had to ring my elder sister to check the numbet. It was correct, but the black and white 20s or 30s semi had been replaced by something nothing like the rest of the road - plain red brick. I had to assume that no.32 had burnt down and been replaced.

Dh’s folks, OTOH, until shortly before MiL died, had lived in the same house for as long as he could remember. We live not far away now, so he knows the whole area like the back of his hand. I’ve never had ‘roots’ like that - I’ve often felt a bit envious.

We lived on a new estate and there were lots of rules in the deeds about where and what type of fences could be put up. I remember it as a spacious green area (front gardens had to be open plan with no fences) but now the area seems cramped and untidy because the no fence rules are no longer in place.