Open Writing

1910

I love to write. I spend every spare moment I have writing, but I haven’t the confidence to write something really wonderful, like a book. I write letters. articles for the newspaper or magazines which occasionally get printed, but mostly I just write out my thoughts.

We have not lived on Lansdowne Crescent long – but I thought that if I wrote everything which happened to all the people on our road, it would make a sort of book. I thought I would write at the end of each year, and tell the ups and downs of each of our families, or at least the ones which are the most interesting.

Lansdowne Crescent is a very elite part of Worcester, with our houses reaching right through from one road to the next. There are only 18 houses on the road, some of them detached, but most of them are joined at one side or the other, but none the less, all are very big houses. Because the gardens’ slope, we have 3 levels, and some houses have gone into the attic as well as having a cellar. Some have little balconies off their bedrooms. Nearly all have patios outside. It is a very nice part of Worcester, with views across to the Malvern Hills in the distance, and the various spires and towers of the city cathedrals and churches in the closer view. Even the near distance is attractive, as it contains plots of vegetables and flowers from allotments, and they are all productive and well attended.

Let me introduce you to my neighbours:

At number 1, Beechcroft we have Mr. William George Lewis and his family. Mr. Lewis is about 50 and his wife Lilian is about ten years younger. He is a stationer. They moved here from Rainbow Terrace and haven’t been resident much longer than we have. They have no children at home. His shop, called George William Lewis, Young and Son is at 69 Broad Street.

At number 2 we have Mr. Edward Francis Needham and his wife Ellen. He is about 50 and runs the company Needham and Co., which deals in the sale of coal, corn and guano. Up until twenty years ago, he was in business with Mr. Charles Walker, whose daughter Charlotte is our good friend. Then Mr. Walker set up his own business, and the Needhams’ had theirs, so they were in competition. He has a work site in town at Lowesmore Wharf and his office at 4 St. Nicholas Street, and another one in Birmingham. They have a son William who is about 10.

At number 3 we have Rev. John McNair, a retired minister from Gateshead in Durham who is very elderly as is his wife Sarah.

We live at number 4. I will go into more detail about our family later. We bought the house from the Hiscocks. Charles Hiscock and his wife Kate had 4 children when they lived here, but the interesting thing is that they also had 8 draper’s assistants and 2 servants living in the house. They must have done their drapery work from the house. I know it is a big house, but even so, it must have been very crowded with 16 people living in it.

At number 5 we have Miss Lucy Curtis. She and her sister Henrietta moved here after their parents died. Originally the family lived all together in Hertfordshire but the women inherited enough money to buy a property of their own. They didn’t like the idea of continuing to live with their brothers and sisters-in-law. They obviously had quite a life previously because Miss Curtis talks about having three footmen, a ladies’ maid and seven other servants. She also hints at relatives in the peerage.