Fay

I was born and brought up in Stepney – now known as Tower Hamlets.   I had a happy childhood until Hitler decided to interfere!!!!

The house my parents and I lived in was built some time in the early 19th Century and is now Grade 2 listed as is the area surrounding...   I have tried to find out an approximate date of building, but have had no luck thus far.   We moved out after my father suffered a stroke and could not cope with the stairs and the loo (not fairies) at the end of the garden.   We bought a ground floor maisonette in Hainault.   My brother and his family lived close by and my parents could be near their grandchildren.   Unfortunately my father passed away about two years after we moved.   One of my great nephews (the whiz kid) has been trying to find out about my father’s military record, and since I got my computer, I have checked out a few things.   But a lot of the army records were lost during the war – that Hitler again.

I worked in Holborn which caused me to have the infinite joy of travelling on the Central Line.   I always got a seat as the flat is very close to the station.  I read a lot of books on the journey, especially in later years when the system started to really deteriorate and the signals were forever failing – especially at Leytonstone.

I retired after working for Cable & Wireless Telecommunications for a large number of years.   I no longer have the pleasure of travelling on a Central Line train to work– only once or twice a week when I go to Wanstead or elsewhere outside the rush hour if possible.

I have several hobbies which keep me occupied when I should be doing that boring old housework!!!

I go to Calligraphy class, I do embroidery, knitting and crochet (these days in miniature).   I read, watch TV, DVDs, listen to music.  I belong to a miniaturist group (dolls houses) and we go to fairs (spend a fortune), visit museums etc.  I’m interested in Archaeology.

One of my hobbies involves quite a large dolls’ house – eight rooms and a roof garden – which I am still in the process of decorating and furnishing.  I keep changing my mind. Although the house is Victorian in style I have not furnished it in period, apart from the ‘master’ bedroom.   This is furnished in the style of Charles Rennie MacIntosh.   I’m also working on several ‘shops’, one of which is a museum shop with artefacts from around the world.    All this is 1/12th in size – that is one inch to a foot (I don’t deal in metrication).