Top posts

• Monsieur Père paraphernalia

  29 September 2013

  Here are the photos of a number of things which either belonged to Monsieur Père, which he had made, or which he used. A padded box for knitting needles which was made by MP. One of the two scales of this kind which I believe existed at 9DR; this one...

• Magazines for boys and girls

  27 September 2013

  When we stayed at 9DR, we were the lucky subscribers of magazines for boys and girls: Tini had Bunty, us boys Eagle, then Lion and Eagle (I fancy we even had a short try at Tiger), and Noël has also sent me photos of another one, called Teddy Bear, probably...

• Grandma anecdotes

  28 August 2013

  When I think of Auntie, it’s funny how certain little anecdotes come back: for example I was travelling on the tube with her once, I was perhaps 14, and she must have been taking me to the Science Museum or something of the kind. The train had just stopped...

• Longhorsley

  10 July 2013

  In August 2007, we spent some time exchanging houses with some people living in Morpeth, and I knew that the house where Grandma's family lived, in Longhorsley, wasn't very far, so we set out one day to find it: We reached this place: we parked the car,...

• And the goose was a goose!

  26 January 2014

  "Johnny Crow would dig and sow, till he made a little garden" Dear everyone, Were you read this funny book? I think it was one of Auntie Olive's favourite. Noel scanned some pages of it for me - I suppose the original is in Bonnebosq - and I laughed again...

• Weddings at 9DR

  31 August 2016

  Hi, here are the photos I have of weddings connected to the people of 9DR; of course they're only a few, but I'm hoping that if some of you have other ones, you might send them to me and we can enrich the collection! Remember: no material later than 1988....

• Wartime in Palmers Green

  27 January 2016

  Here's the collection of PG wartime pics I have! Of course it would be fun for some of the aunties to tell us about about their memories of the war... Aunty Mary?? This last one is apparently a picture of Hazelwood Lane houses hit by a bomb. And below...

• Testimonies on Olive & Cecil from outside the family

  21 September 2015

  A Hazelwood Lane school performance in 1966 A few weeks ago, I had told you that there were people on this FB page who mentioned Auntie Olive in her capacity of Headmistress of Hazelwood Lane Infants school, and I have written to them to let me know exactly...

• Garden fixtures

  28 February 2015

  In the Hughes' gardens, there weren't many additions of the kind you now often see, fancy gazebos, or ponds with a fountain, or a separation in the hedge leading to another part. It was very much a no-nonsense garden. Very small, relatively, anyway. Still,...

• Holy Land (2) - the fun they had!

  19 November 2014

  One very pleasant aspect of Grandpa's narrative is his humour. This post will deal with that! It's rather unexpected, in fact, because of the very religious nature of the accounts. We knew he was a prankster in his own way (my Dad reminded me recently...

• Washing at 9DR

  03 July 2014

  Time for a fun post: Washing! At 9DR, like in all other houses of the world, there was a big amount of washing going about. The Aunties washed... a lot! So here's a selection of washing pictures and stuff - nice and clean! In case you hadn't followed,...

• Sleeping at 9DR

  11 May 2014

  When we stayed at 9DR, we (here we refers to my brothers and myself, I'll come to other people soon) would normally sleep in the top Back-room, where two beds were available and perhaps because I was the older of the two, I got to sleep in the bigger,...

• Our Christmased past

  25 December 2013

  Merry Christmas! The title from this post comes from our Auntie Jo who, having answered my query of two years ago, which was for people of the family to contribute to our Christmas eve get-together, by telling what Christmas used to be for them when they...

• Jo at 9DR

  15 October 2013

  Apart from group photos (check here ) and some older ones at sisters' weddings, I have very little pictures of Auntie Jo at 9DR: so this is hoping that she herself (or the children??) might provide a few extra ones to the collection! What a nice smile!...

• Little treasures from Auntie Olive's house

  20 August 2013

  Hi, Hélène has recently sent me a number of pictures of objects which had belonged to Auntie Olive, no value whatsoever (like her zip collection !), but I call them treasures all the same because they remind us of the times when n°7 DR was still full...

• Broomfield Park 3

  18 August 2013

  Here is the last series of Broomfield Park pics I have, with shots taken at various times between the sixties and the eighties: The house in 1960 1970s Elm Avenue The playground View from the big slide (1975) This one above is perhaps earlier A passing...

• Yves: later photos at 9 Derwent

  18 August 2013

  You have already seen pictures of myself in 1961-1963 ( here ): here are some later ones! 1969. The gap between the early and the late sixties could be explained either by the absence of photo-sessions, or the fact that our stays in 64, 65, 66 etc. were...

• Grandma's trinkets 1

  14 August 2013

  I thought it might be fun to put together the few photos I have of Grandma's trinkets as seen on her kitchen dresser and mantelpieces: On this photo of Carol and Janet, which I have often shown, in front of the sash on the left there's the old telephone...

• Knitted toys

  26 July 2013

  Hi, here's a picture of some knitted toys which Mark sent me some time ago: what's good is that among them is the squirrel which I remember cherishing because of its chocolate colour and its fine upright tail (its tip was fastened to the back of the head...

• Auntie Olive's zip collection

  26 July 2013

  Here's what's left of Auntie Olive's zip collection, which Helene sent me (she was the one owning it), saying that she reduced it a little, borrowing one now and then when she needed one: I'm adding the copy of a letter in which Auntie Olive mentions...

• The destiny of a photo

  26 July 2013

  This photo of Helene in Broomfield Park in 1962 ...was sent to Charles who was doing his military service in Germany, and he drew it: (the picture above was probably taken of him at his desk to be sent to Cath waiting for him at home in England) Then...

• When François was Paco

  25 July 2013

  François is the only one of us Millous who was born at 9 Derwent road: so here's a celebration of his first (and later) years there: We start with the photo of the house which he sent me upon learning I was starting this blog: Monsieur Père had built...

• Broomfield park 2

  25 July 2013

  Some additional photos of the park, with family this time: There are additional pictures in this series at the park in the post called "Charles at Auntie's" The Clock House, just opposite Derwent Road. Cath says the photo was taken before it was vandalised...

• When Jo walked to school!

  03 March 2018

  Here's a recent post by Jo on Facebook where she remembers the days when she would go to school on foot. I thought I'd post it here! Idly reminiscing, as one does when one is alone, I was looking back on the winters of my childhood. It was frequently...

• Derwent road

  06 September 2015

  Here are some pictures and things collected in relation to the actual street as it used to be. On the old map above, drawn before Derwent road was in existence, you can see that a rather large fish pond stood practically where DR was going to be built....