Forbears of mine lived round the corner in Lockett Street at that time! Wonder if they knew each other?
I remember a lot about that area as I lived there until I was about 10, when the houses were knocked down.
Old maps, the ones that people often mention on here (forget the company name, sorry!) do show Station Street and all the surrounding area. I have the relevant one here somewhere.
That area was lovely for us kids to grow up in. Some of the houses were more up-to-date than others, though. While ours had a proper flushing lavvy (at the bottom of the garden, but you can't have everything!) some streets still had night soil collections.
We also had just one tap in the house, in the kitchen over the white Belfast sink, and
no plug sockets. Some houses just had a 'slopstone'. I felt quite posh by comparison!
When my parents moved into the house in the early 50s it still had a full Victorian cast iron fire/cooking range, which was soon replaced by a more modern open grate. No back boiler though, so no hot water in the house.
The kitchen sink was a brown 'slopstone', which was a shallow brown sink set close to the floor. When Mother turned the tap on, water would splash out over the floor, if there was enough pressure, that is!
Often there wasn't as 31 was next to the end of the water pipe.
So your relatives, 3 doors down, would've had a walled garden with a backyard soil privy, one tap in the kitchen and a 'slopstone' and a cast iron kitchen range.
Two rooms and a small kitchen downstairs and three bedrooms, all separate, upstairs.
Sounds quaint to us but these were innovations at the time - internal plumbing, organised sanitary collections, adequate bedrooms... luxury!
The local infant/junior school was Pedley Street School. It still stands, entirely recognisable, complete with little bell tower, 10 minutes' walk from my old home in Station Street. It's now used as the Transport Police HQ.
When I went there in the '60s we used to sit on long two-level benches outside which I later realised were actually the old school desks. You can see the sort of thing in this link, scroll down to the 'Victorian school desk' photo -
http://www.bathpostalmuseum.org/explore/history/history_1800s2.htmlVery much like that, but with no back and much longer, and placed against the wall so that we could sit on the two levels.
So, any kids from your family would DEFINITELY have used those desks, which I sat on decades later!
Happy days!
