Our visit to Cheltenham last week and the long awaited trip down memory lane was such a wonderful experience. Sometimes, no matter how good the memories of times gone by are you know you just cannot go back it will never be the same. As we wandered around reliving memories of such carefree days it did make us yearn for those old days, those simple days…. but you cannot freeze yourself in the past.
There were moments when I felt I would love to live there again – the Regency architecture so light and elegant at the side of our heavy Victorian gothic style here in the north, the variety of shops and the substantial number of parks and open spaces around and within the town are so inviting. To us, coming from a part of the north that is economically challenged the differences were very noticeable – the whole place oozed wealth and with that wealth comes well appointed properties on leafy streets, with well manicured parks and immaculately dressed and very stylish trim ladies, and hardly any sign of the slobby tracky bottoms, tattoo parlours or charity shops which litter northern towns (that is not a criticsm but merely an observation).
We settled ourselves into the beautiful apartment on Monday teatime then immediately went for a stroll around heading towards the street we moved to just off the high street during my second year.
All that remains are the street signs Grosvenor Terrace and the little alleyway at the lower end. All the houses are gone and replaced with a horror of a multi – storey car park, which my camera refused to take a picture of. And that was another observation – the amount of cars now, so many that they have numerous car parks that were not required back in the 70’s…most people just walked as it is not a large town.
Walking back along the High Street we came to the jewellers shop where we bought my engagement ring in 1975 at a grand cost of £28. This was the shop front in 2018 it looked just the same as the day we bought the ring!
And now – this is what we found – completely empty…but I do still have the ring.
We woke on Tuesday to a gloriously sunny and dry day and we finally arrived at our destination Holst Victorian House museum. For those who don’t know Gustav Holst was a composer who is best known for his famous seven movement orchestral suite The Planets and of which’ I vow to thee, my country’ (a poem by Sir Cecil Spring Rice) was set to music taken and adapted from the Jupiter suite. He also composed the hymn tune called Cranham for the poem ‘In the bleak miswinter’ by Christina Rosetti which earned the title of a Christmas Carol when published in 1872.
Gustav was born in this modest Regency terraced house in Cheltenham in 1874 to parents Aldolph and Clara Holst. His younger brother was born in 1876 and sadly Clara died shortly after and they left the house to live in Vittoria Walk in 1882.
I was met and given a wonderfully warm welcome by Laura, the curator of this museum, and one of the local student volunteers. It was through Laura that DH and I made this visit; we had been considering a trip for goodness knows how many years but never quite made it. The purpose of our visit was to view the bedroom in the Holst house that has been temporarily changed (as far as possible) into that of a 1970’s fashion student as part of acknowledging the final residents of this famous house, the Garlicks, who rented out rooms to the fashion students from the art college at that time.
I personally did not know any fashion students who lived in this particular house but it is a similar, although smaller version, of the Regency house on Prestbury Road I lived in prior to Grosvenor Terrace and through Laura contacting me on my blog I was able to provide her with photos, designs and some written memories of what a real life 1970’s fashion student’s bedroom might be like.
Not all the students on my course during the early seventies would have had a bedroom like this. When I first arrived in Cheltenham I lived in a boarding house providing bed, breakfast and an evening meal and the decoration resembled that of my parents house. Many students lived in such places and were comfortable with it being more home from home in appearance but I left half way through the first term as I wanted to experience real student life with no restrictive landlady and her rules, no matter how grotty the place I had to live in. The student house at 58 Prestbury Road did not disappoint and it certainly was grotty but it was all about the people – we were in some respects the original version of Friends.
Some of the key parts of this period had been carefully selected by Laura and her team; the orange bedspread (mine was similar – my mum’s old candlewick one so popular in the sixties and lasted well into the seventies), the cotton printed Indian bedspreads we used to cover up the old wallpapers most rentals had back then, the very graphic flower printed bedding and the mismatch all round.
Laura had assembled and printed a newspaper to hand out to visitors (see on the bed) that contained my written memories of life as a fashion student together with some of my photos of that time. I had surprisingly few photos and not of good quality as it was an expensive hobby back then to buy and develop film.
The wardobe above was so similar to the one I had in my room at both houses and the kimono dressing gown hung on the door was made from my very first printed length of fabric. We had to create a design that incorporated an element of pattern and would be printed in one colour and repeated.
Many of the sketches I did at the time were copied and pinned up around the room to give a little authenticity…
….but one of my favourite little touches was this blank sketchbook Laura had left for children to draw their own designs in. I remember this is how I started about age 8 just drawing lots of fashion ideas on any scrap of paper I could find not knowing back then that it would eventually lead to a whole career.
This beautiful quilt was hung on the wall, which I believe is on loan from the lady who made it and each of the patches is a genuine 1970’s fabric.
After we said our goodbyes we ventured off to test more of our memory skills. It wasn’t hard to spot 58 Prestbury Road – looking far more elegant than it did when we lived there. After having a small bedroom on the little half landing I eventually moved up into the attic bedroom that is the little tower you can see at the back of the house.
The attic stairs were the only ones to have any carpet – a traditional patterned red one and I rushed out and bought some carpet cleaner to bring it back to an almost new state. I was quite proud of that stair carpet it was the only piece of beauty in the whole place and it was only when one of the students had their mum visiting that we washed the kitchen floor and found the lino actually had a pattern!
We soon noticed that the road was tree lined now – so that was a surprise, but the bus stop and the bench just outside the house was missing.
The little shop I worked in for a while across the road is still going strong.
Of course we couldn’t leave Cheltenham without a day exploring the Promenade, where you find a host of the more expensive chains like The White Company, Hobbs, Anthropologie (need I go on!). I was so focused on the shops I didn’t even get a good picture.
The Promenade leads to the Imperial Gardens and eventually to Montpellier gardens…
…and Montpellier itself where there is a cluster of more individual even more expensive shops with beautiful window displays reminiscent of our time in Vicenza.
It was quite unexpected that there would be a shoe repair shop in amongst them but this is no Timpsons – rather I think he would be mending only shoes that have been handmade in the first place.
They also boast a branch of ‘The Ivy’ although expensive, not as eye watering as I thought it would be….but no we didn’t have a meal there – I just took a charming little picture.
By Wednesday I had walked further than my feet could cope with so we had to limit ourselves to allow for recovery. The day did not start well anyway with an early morning call from my mum in a panic which was not very coherent and by 10.30am I had another call from her carer saying mum had blacked out for a while and she had called the paramedics who were with her at the time and she was refusing to go to hospital. They had not been able to contact my sister, but the paramedics were very good and rang round to try and get her GP to come out (no chance on that one) or a nurse. A nurse came and took blood and eventually a urine sample and my sister finally arrived. So the day was interspersed with phone calls and not knowing if we might have to pack up and go home and sort mum out!
We decided to go out to Pittville Park while waiting for further news and took a flask of soup for lunch and sat by the lakeside to calm ourselves and watch the ducks and the heron.
Afterwards, we walked up to the Pump Rooms and out onto Albert Road. At the top of this road was the Art College and the fashion block – but all is long gone and has been replaced by the student accommodation village. The bus stop near the corner has also gone – it was here one night after college when I waited for the bus down into town that one of the royal cars came around the corner from the nearby race course and slowed down as it passed me and there was the Queen Mother waving from the back seat. I turned round to see who she was waving at but then realised it was me as I was completely on my own. Shame she didn’t offer me a lift!
We decided on the Art Gallery / Museum on Thursday where there are some wonderful William Morris treasures (which is another post another day) and all too soon Friday, the last day, arrived and before heading home we met up with my sister-in-law and her husband who had popped over from Oxford to Winchcombe for a hot chocolate in the Old Bakery and a catch up. Winchcombe is a delightful Cotswold market town heaving with history and those wonderful mellow stone cottages.
It was a delightful end to our visit.
Before we even arrived home we had a call from daughter No. 2 to provide some childcare the next day with an overnight stay at grannies for Little L and Sweetie.
Mum recovered and is awaiting our next visit this week.
Life is soon back to normal!
Back soon x
where the journey takes me 2 