I was twenty years old and moving into my own home, I was moving out and taking responsibility for myself, I was getting married to the girl of my dreams. I was really growing up with a bang. Our new home was going to be a flat in Burscough village. Martlands were the land lords and their offices were in Martlands Mill in Mart lane. It was a busy mill and yard with all sorts going on, there were engineering works and garages on the yard as well as local businesses going about their trades.
We went in and signed for the keys six weeks before our wedding. It was over the local chemists shop and had another flat above it. The entrance was up an iron fire escape stair case from the back yard, it went up to a shared door and corridor. There were two doors in the corridor, one to our flat and one to the top floor flat. As you entered the flat on the left was the bathroom which was very large and have an old fashion Victorian cast iron bath and sink and mirror all on one wall. At the far end of the room was a toilet which was a real old water clauset with a box made of mahogany wood with a hole in the top. The seat was covered with a big mahogany lid hinged at the back with a long brass piano lid hinge. The water tank for the flush was over the toilet with a long pull chain hanging from a cast iron lever and I ceramic handle on the end of the chain. The only heating in this end of the flat was night storage radiator which heated up over night on cheap rate electricity and then gradually released during the day. It was a very cold bathroom in the winter evenings.
Coming out and going into the main flat we had to climb three steps to the main level. Here the ceilings were very high with plaster cornices running round every room, the light fittings had great big plaster roses around them at least two feet diameter. The kitchen was the first room on the left, the first thing that struck you as you looked into the kitchen was a Victorian fire place in black cast iron. The fire itself was surrounded with tiles of blue Delf type country scenes and a big mantle piece of cast iron over the top. It was really a focal point for the kitchen, the window looked out over the back yard. The next room was the double bedroom it too had a fire place with the cast iron work and the tiles but slightly smaller. The second bedroom door was straight ahead at the front of the hall, it was small room that would only fit a single bed and maybe one cupboard. The lounge door was on the left just before the lttle bedroom and when we walked in we were struck by the immense size of the fireplace. It was made of brown marble and stood five feet high and seven feet wide on the wall opposite the door. It had pillars either side holding up an impressive mantelpiece and a big open hearth which looked really good with big logs burning in it. The windows were huge they went nearly from roof to floor in the very high ceiling room. It had five big sash windows, three at the front and tow at the side, either side of the fire place. The room was as big as the living room had been at the Morris Dancers. The whole flat was packed with period features and it was a very special place.
We decorated with big bold patterns and with white anaglypta wall papers. Some of the wall we did with woodchip wall paper and then painted over it. My mum made us curtains and nets for all the windows. It took hours of sewing on the Singer sewing machine because of the length they had to be. We got a pair of bunk beds for the spare bed room and Heathers Nan gave us table and chairs for the kitchen.
We were given a white goat skin rug by my dad and this went in front of the fireplace. We were very lucky as we bought all the carpets off Sue and Dave, our friends that were moving out. I think we bought their three piece suite as well. We got bed room furniture from my mum’s friend Steve and it fitted in well with the decor. We went across to Smiths electrical in the village and rented a colour television. Living right in the village was going to be so handy for work for Heather, the shop was just over the zebra crossing. The back yard was perfect for me to store my motorbike which by this time I had upgraded to a brand new Honda CB125. My record player, all my records, twelve inch LP’s and seven inch singles, came with us too.
I moved in and Heather would come over from work after she finished. We ate together and watched television in the living room, sometimes Helen and Chris came over from their house in Skelmersdale and we would go out. She still went home to bed at night and I stayed in the flat. All the stuff that had been stored in the loft at Heathers and at my mum’s came over to our flat. There was boxes and boxes of it. We had three fourteen pound Lurpak butter boxes full of bars of soap alone. I had to build a cupboard under the stairs of the flat just to give us extra storage space.
As I had kept some of the Valentines cards or birthday cards I had given Heather decided to get then framed as pictures for the walls in the flat. They were big cards at thirty inches by eighteen inches and they were framed at the shop called Ramages in the village. I asked for non reflective glass in them both so that you could see them clearly. We still have them today nearly forty years later.
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