No. 24 Wavertree Nook Road, was an end-of-terrace house, set well back from the road, approached by a long pathway which also gave access to a row of houses built at right angles to the road. Thus it had a long front garden, flanked by a privet hedge and with a splendid big hawthorn tree at the top end by the road. Behind the house, the rear garden started with a small grassed terrace and then plunged down a grass bank to the main lawn at the bottom. At the right of the terrace was a laburnum tree to which was attached a rope ladder, and to its right was a flight of steps leading down, through a luxuriant rose arbour, to the main lawn. This was large enough to accommodate a tennis court - for which it was duly used, complete with net posts set in sockets and a white line machine for marking the area of play. It was surrounded by borders which rose steeply to the boundary hedges. At one corner was a huge mountain ash tree. There were numerous apple trees in the borders and white rock, London pride, clumps of pinks and evening primroses. Behind the far boundary hedge lay the Garden Suburb Institute, which was the original farm house for which our back garden provided the pond. Thus, after a heavy rainstorm, it filled with water - sometimes up to a foot deep - and was great fun to play in. Beyond the boundary furthest away from the house ran an overgrown path, down which the occasional small boy used to creep to steal our apples. On one occasion, Dad caught one and made him go around to the front door and ask for an apple. Seeing Dad in the background, Mum duly obliged and although he called regularly thereafter, we probably lost fewer apples. It was certainly less painful than being handed over to the local constable, who in those less politically correct days, was likely to administer summary justice with his belt. It was quicker, cheaper and probbly more effective than a Juvenile Court, and if the lad was unwise enough to complain to his father, he probably got a second beating ! When they first moved in, Dad cut the lawns using the same tiny two-wheeled lawnmower which he had used at Field Way. It probably had ten-inch blades, which meant that as soon as he had finished mowing the lawns, it was time to start over again. Mum tolerated this for only for so long before going out and buying him a motor mower which did the job in a tenth of the time. I can still remember the new lawn mower being delivered and standing in the hall with its gleaming new red and green paint, on a wooden pallet. The new mower cost about £25, and its predecessor was sold for 10/- (50p).

The front door of the house - with the usual red tile step lovingly polished with red mansion polish - opened into a front hall, which also had a side door, and from which the staircase led upstairs. On the left was a door to the front room with bay windows, a gas fire and - from 1938 onwards - a telephone. A further hall door led into the rear lounge/dining room also with a bay window overlooking the garden, and with a fireplace complete with backboiler to heat the hot water. On the left of the fireplace was a book case fitted into the alcove. From this room, a door led into a small kitchen, from which in turn, a back door opened out onto a step, with a coal place to the right - under the staircase - and to the left, the side passage to the garden. The kitchen initially had a large stone coloured shallow sink, but I remember this being replaced with a "modern" smaller but deeper white glazed sink. There was a gas cooker and a free standing gas boiler for washing clothes. A "modern" electric iron was used to iron these. An outside wooden shed held gardening tools and the bicycles.