Local History & One-Place Study

In February 1976 we moved to Peterborough, a family of four following my Dad's new job with Thomas Cook, whose new headquarters were being built at Thorpe Wood. Initially we lived in rented accommodation in Middleton, Bretton, but in September of that year, after the hottest Summer on record, we moved to our new home, a newly-built house in Longthorpe. These three books are a record of our life there.

Childhood Home 1 - The First Ten Years

2 Juniper was built in 1976 as part of the expansion of a new estate. A detached house, it sat in a good plot of land, with garden almost on 4 sides of it. Over the years, this allowed for substantial extension - a utility room in 1978, a porch extension onto the front hallway and a bedroom extension above the utility room in 1981, and finally a lounge extension, married into the garage in 1983.

Changes occurred to the garden walls, trees, pond, and patio, as well as to garden use. Inside the house, other changes included sliding doors, different wallpaper and carpets, new furniture, and a new loft entrance.

Childhood Home 1- The First Ten Years, the first book in the series, is available as a paperback on Amazon in a new second edition which utilises some recently-found photographs, and expands upon the uses for the utility room and study:-

Childhood Home 2: The Near Environs

Taking a brief look at our first home in Peterborough, located in Bretton, the book then moves on to 2 Juniper in Longthorpe, looking to set the house in its immediate locale.

From there, we circle out, first to Longthorpe village and Thorpe Wood, then to Ferry Meadows country park and the Nene Valley Railway, before focusing on Peterborough city centre.

Several days out to places such as Crowland and Barnack, and further afield to London Zoo, are covered, as well as my paternal grandparents' house in Oundle, before the book rounds off with a special day in 1979.

Childhood Home 2: The Near Environs, the second book in the series, is available as a paperback on Amazon

Childhood Home 3: The Final Decade

Inside the house, other changes included additional sliding doors, and new carpeting, whilst in the garden the pond was enlarged and the area remodelled after one of the trees died. In 1995, the original buyers of the property sold up upon retirement and moved, one of the last of the families who had bought these properties so to do. .

Childhood Home 3: The Final Decade, the third book in the series, is now available as a paperback on Amazon

Childhood Home 4: The Last Few Years

This supplementary volume to the Childhood Home series covers late 1991 to early 1995, and is largely intended to flesh out these last few years when we lived at 2 Juniper. My own diaries are not extant for this period, but Mum's diaries and Dad's logbook flesh out the many photographs and memories that I have, and provide a chronological and narrative structure for the book. In general, this is a book of what happened at the house, or whilst living at the house, during the years in question, so includes my places of work in Peterborough, the pub quiz, meals out, and a camping weekend at Sacrewell Farm. .

Childhood Home 4: The Last Few Years, the fourth and final book in the series, is now available as a paperback on Amazon

Infinity Wanderers is a new magazine dedicated to promoting alternate history and the associated genres of Science Fiction, Steampunk, Historical Fiction and Fantasy. In addition we aim for between 1/3 and 1/2 real history and writers of Historical features are welcome to submit.

Whilst considered part of the Scimitar Edge stable, Infinity Wanderers goes out under the self-publishing 'Selornia' marque as a magazine, and not a book.

Please send submissions to editor@scimitaredge.com.
Issue 11 of Infinity Wanderers will be published for Christmas 2024/New Year 2025.

View the current issue of Infinity Wanderers here.