Moving on

We remained at Longden End until the age of ten when we moved down into the hamlet of Rakewood. Mother having managed to get a half of a terraced house. When I say half i mean that at one stage it had been an end of terrace, but some stage the front half had been made into a shop , with the back half being a two up and two down arrangement. unfortunately the shop section was now derelict as was a chapel  on the western side.The group of houses consisting of another two like ours, separated by a  centre house which actually stretched from front to back them having the luxury of a front and back door. The group had the rather resplendent name of "ANTIOCH" obviously having had ties with the chapel. at some stage. To my mother it was a great improvement, as she was much nearer to her work,  we  were nearer to school and her life was made easier by the fact that it was smaller,running water. ( mostly down the walls ) and electric light. My brother Peter and I hated it. Mainly because we had lost our playground.. Things would never be the same.Another plus was that we had no longer got the chores of fetching the water. berrying the toilet and ponching the washing . Another plus was that we were now near to our school friends end for the first time were able to meet them in the evening after school.   To get back to the toilet they wer in a block of three at the end of the terrace. Each toilet They consisted of a large a large wooden platform with a large hole in the centre, a hinged wooden lid was lowered across the hole to keep out the flies when not in use there being a large steel container to catch the effluent., this being collected weekly by the borough council. The three toilets were shared by "Antioch" and "Lower Abbots" residents, a similar terraced block set  higher up the hillside. A representative of each block would take it in turn to clean them