6 York houses through time that tell one man's life story

WATCHING the recent series of A House Through Time where a house gives up its secrets and history, inspired me to write about York houses but from a different perspective.

Turning the phrase on its head, it becomes My Time Through Houses and in my life the houses I have lived in have become part of who I am, and central to my roots in York.

As York is such a small city, most people living here of a certain age will have experienced a sense of déjà vu as they travel from one place to another. From small first houses, to family homes, to retirement bungalows, the sense of belonging to the city grows stronger. In addition, visits to friends and relatives’ homes also reinforce these memories and even a short journey across York for whatever reason evokes fond or “not so fond” memories of time spent in them.

David Olusoga, presenter of the popular TV show A House Through Time

From discussions with friends and family it’s fair to say that people in their middle to later years will have experienced at least three homes and possibly more if you are a renter rather than a buyer. And as this is a Nostalgia column, certain younger residents of York will not have had chance or opportunity to make their home journey yet. Students, first-time buyers or young people desperate to get on to the property ladder have not yet had chance to create those memories and I certainly appreciate how hard it is in the present day to set off on the home-ownership path.

But - back to my travels through my six homes. The first house I remember was in Hempland Lane.

I was born in York, and my father who was a quantity-surveyor by day and a magician by night (yes really!) had our lovely house built in the new estate expanding in Heworth in the 1950s. My first four and a half years of childhood were spent here, until tragically he passed away collapsing on stage during a performance.

John Fletcher as a little boy outside his home in Hempland Lane in Heworth. Photo supplied

Having poured every penny into building the house there was no luxury like life insurance, and so the next house I remember was a small terrace in Fourth Avenue, Tang Hall, where we moved in with my grandparents, and my mum went back to work. Many hours were spent playing in Tang Hall Beck, not enclosed as it is now and certainly not subject to present health and safety rules, as I fell in numerous times, or came home with cut arms and legs from climbing trees in the nearby woods.

John Fletcher's former home in Fourth Avenue. Photo supplied

As mum became financially more secure, and grandparents got older, we moved again, still in Heworth, to a new house in Oakland Avenue. A fairly new estate in the 1960s, this was a nice semi-detached home where I grew into a teenager, had parties and my own bedroom which I filled with Airfix kits.

It’s fair to say this house shaped my future life, as I started playing drums here (which I still do) with a friend from school on guitar, and courted my wife here listening to records, (which I still collect) and at 16 started work around the corner at Sorrells in Heworth Village. I also spent hours kicking a ball against a wall in Dale's Lane, as there were hardly any cars.

John Fletcher as teen outside his home in Oakland Avenue. Photo supplied

And the courting paid off. Now married, we paid £4,000 for a house in Moor Grove, Dringhouses. These little terraced homes had hundred-foot gardens with the East Coast main line at the bottom, no inside bathroom and a toilet in the yard.

In this day and age it is laughable that we borrowed £3,500 from the council to buy it and were terrified we wouldn’t make the payments! But we did, we made improvements and keen to start a family we sold it for a little more than we’d paid and bought a bungalow in Huntington.

Remember I said earlier “fond” and “not so fond" memories? Most of the bungalows where we lived were built on a flood plain. Consequently each winter as the water table rose the back garden flooded, the front garden became an ice-rink, and the driveway became impassable.

Now with two very young children we became concerned when our first-born developed asthma, ice formed on the inside of windows and on removing a rotten floorboard in the rear bedroom we found the worse case of dry rot we’d ever seen.

John Fletcher's former home was riddled with dry rot and fungal spores. Photo supplied

White fungal spores stretched the whole way under the house, and Rentokil, which we called in, gleefully took photos to feature in a book they were publishing! After five years, and copious repairs to an unhappy house, we took advantage of the emerging property boom and sold it.

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And so to our “forever" home as the Americans like to call it. Back in Heworth again, the twin cul-de-sacs of Irwin and Malton Avenue seemed idyllic. Close to town, close to amenities and bus routes, we chanced upon a semi-detached house which had been empty for three years.

Covered in cobwebs, with broken windows and old 1930s furniture still in place, its overgrown garden beckoned us in.

And once inside, brushing off the spiders, we instinctively knew that this was “it”. Both of us felt the house had potential, and a very special feeling, and so it has proved. Over the years, the area has grown, most homes have been extended to four bedrooms, and ours has been future-proofed with a downstairs bathroom, shower and wide doors in case we need a wheelchair.

This final house has been a happy home, steeped in memories of children growing up, family Christmas days and birthdays, get-togethers with friends, and somewhere to feel safe and secure from the turbulent world outside.

Who knows what the future holds? My next home might actually be a “home”, but even if it is, I can sit in my wheelchair and reminisce in my mind about the six houses where I put down lifetime roots, which shaped my journey of living in York, and which forever ties me to this wonderful city.

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If you love delving into York's past and seeing photos and reading stories from yesteryear then make sure you check The Press every day for its regular nostalgia stories. And don't miss our eight-page nostalgia supplement every Wednesday in the paper.

We also have more than 10,000 members in our online nostalgia group on Facebook, Why We Love York - Memories. It is free to join and you will find us at www.facebook.com/groups/yorknostalgia/.

It would be great to see your old photos of York - and they don't have to be from centuries ago. We all love seeing old photos from our recent past, and some of our more popular stories with readers date from the 70s, 80s and 90s.

If you have a nostalgia story for us, please email maxine.gordon@thepress.co.uk.