Our writing group only met last Tuesday, but Id already forgotten what the next topic was so had to ask! It’s ‘Moving’ and I have no idea what I’ll write about, only that it won’t be about moving house. I’ve moved house many times, and living here in this house in Uphill may be the longest I’ve lived in a place – twenty years last May. I was born in the Cambridge maternity hospital in Mill Road, but was taken home with mum and dad when I was about two weeks old. We lived in Metcalf Road, in a new ground floor flat owned by a dear old lady who lived upstairs. My eyes water when I look on Zoopla at how much it would be worth now – as a six bedroom semi-detached house – no longer two two bedroomed flats, it’s supposedly just nearer a million pounds than half a million – can you believe it? What an extortionate amount!!!!
We moved when I was fourteen to a semi-detached house not far away. It had been owned by the same old couple and their sister probably since Noah was a lad – well, at least since it was built, I’m not sure how much mum and dad payed, a few thousand I would think and now. I’m surprised that compared to our previous home, it’s value, although still high, is not as much it’s still over three-quarters of a million – this of course is just an estimate based on surrounding properties, area, city etc. When I was sixteen, the family crossed the country from east to west and we moved to Weston-super-Mare, which is technically where we are back living now! So what about the bungalow my parents bought then? Gosh – it just shows how different areas affect the price! Our beautiful three-bedroomed bungalow would now fetch about half of what our semi-detached Cambridge house would have been, and a third of the converted flat, now a semi where I lived for the first fourteen years of my life!
I went to Manchester, first as a student, then working at Manchester Airport, and then as a teacher. I eventually bought my first house in Oldham over thirty years ago. I cannot remember how much it cost, needless to say it’s gone up in price, but it still is way below the price of the Cambridge semi my family lived in! Then I moved to a lovely bungalow, in a village on the outskirts of Oldham – a very happy place where my life changed forever in the most wonderful way. I can’t believe what a low price it has considering its situation, land, and size. Whatever it costs, to me its worth its weight in gold for all the happiness it brought! As for our house now, who knows; no doubt it will sell for more than we bought it, but the price of another property would be greater as well. We’re very, very happy here, so have no plans to move, but who knows in the future!
My featured image is not of anywhere I have lived, it’s one of the properties in the row where my great-grandfather lived when he moved from Tasmania to London to be with his family. It’s on Regent’s Park so I daren’t even think of how much anyone would have to pay for it!! I have a feeling it might now be apartments.
Lois Elsden 