IT’S a house that holds years of happy childhood memories for Katie Howbridge.
The school bursar spent years at the quaint period cottage in Honley’s rural area of Hall Ing.
For over 50 years it was the home of her grandparents, James and Margaret Illingworth, and Katie inherited the house when they passed away three years ago.
Katie, who works for Farnley Tyas First School, says: “It’s a house that’s full of many happy memories.
“I was really close to my grandparents and while growing up me and my brother Patrick would go and stay there on weekends.”
James and Margaret were married for more than 65 years and lived in Wooldale briefly before making their home the picturesque village.
They were separated in the early 1940s when James went to war, serving in as an aircraft engineer in the RAF in Canada and Berlin.
He returned around 1948 and shortly afterwards he and mill worker Margaret started looking for a new home.
They fell in love with the pretty setting of Hall Ing and rented a cottage there before buying it.
Katie, who lives in Skelmanthorpe with her husband and two sons, said: “It’s a beautiful, peaceful area and the views from the house are just lovely across open fields and countryside.
“The cottage is part of a small hamlet and it’s like a jigsaw the way the houses are put together back to back. My grandparents’ was the only one that was a full through house.”
The couple later bought a piece of land across the road from the cottage where they created an allotment and had a greenhouse, summerhouse and garage built.
Katie explained: “My grandad worked at Hopkinsons as a engineer and he loved that garage. He spent a lot of time tinkering with different bits of machinery in there.
“He was always in there or the allotment where my grandparents would grow their own vegetables. They always ate what they grew and used to make lots of pickles.
“My grandma was a very keen gardener and the gardens were full of colourful flowers like daffodils and snowdrops which are coming up now.
“ She always had planted seeds in the bedroom where I used to stay and it would drive me crackers!
“We actually have our own allotment and we do a lot of gardening work within my school so it’s definitely something I’ve carried on.”
The cottage, believed to have been built at the beginning of the 1900s, played home to Katie and her brother at weekends when their parents were busy running a social club in Thorncliffe near Sheffield.
Says Katie: “I was very young when we started going. We would go for tea and spend Saturday nights there and grandad brought us home the next day.
“They had dogs and we would always go on long walks around the fields on a Sunday.
“I remember playing games behind the sofa in the living room and we were always made to watch The World Around Us which I would only see if I was given some Fry’s Turkish Delight!”
When Katie’s grandparents died she inherited the two bedroom cottage and did some work to bring it up to date.
She was keen to maintain the property’s original features and with the help of her French polisher husband restored some features like the original doors.
Katie said: “Some of the rooms were looking a bit dated so we did some work to improve the place and put in things like new carpets and windows.
“There are some lovely old features, like the cast iron fireplace upstairs and big built-in storage cupboards in the kitchen which have all been kept.
“As a child I used to cut out pictures and stick them on the wall I stayed in – it was a nightmare getting all the bluetack off!
“I’ve kept a few things like some pieces of pottery grandma used to collect and the family photographs that hung on the walls.
“My grandad collected trains and built a big track. I don’t know what happened to that, but I’ve still got the old trains.”
Katie has made the tough decision to sell her grandparents’ home, hoping it will help her move on from what has been a difficult few years.
She added: “I think that when the house goes it will be the closure I need.
“It’s sad that it’s not going to be in our family any longer, but I hope it will go to somebody who will love it as much as my grandparents did.”
Hall Ing, Honley is on the market with Cornerstone estate agents. To arrange a viewing call 01484 667850.
Factfile:
l Price £149,950
l Two bedroom cottage in a highly sought after rural location
l Enjoying views of open fields to the front and countryside to the rear
l Packed with features, including high ceilings, picture rails, deep skirting boards and stripped doors
l Comes with a piece of land which currently includes a garage, allotment, greenhouse and summer house
