Family Heirlooms (1)

 

 

Mike (my son) and Sarah are moving house imminently. Mike has entrusted certain items to his mum and dad to ensure that they aren't damaged in the move.

One of those items, the folding table pictured, was in my bedroom when I lived in the family house. It was the surface upon which my homework was completed.

It followed me to Manchester when I became an Articled Clerk, and it was the surface on which much of my correspondence course training to be an accountant was carried out.

The table travelled easily in my 850cc Mini, and frequently accompanied me to clients for whom provision of facilities for the auditors was just one step too far. In Thatcher's Britain it was often adorned with a Tilley lamp in order for work to continue after the sun had set and the National Grid was turned off.

I remember it being coveted by the managing director of Empire Engineering Limited, a client based in Farnworth. A profitable little business making small valves and the like. Don Gray kept asking me how much I wanted for it, but his large house in Sale never benefited from the precious table.

For the past few years Mike has been the custodian due to space constraints in our house, and French polisher Paul refreshed the worn looking piece of furniture. 

A little job for Dot, when she reads this, will be to jot down the history of this table before it reached my little bedroom at 17 Tidkin Lane, Guisborough.

Reply from Dot:
This table was in the verandah at Parkside in Rugeley, her parents' house; it was acquired by Dot's father (my grandfather) in the early 1900s.