168 Spalding Road Pinchbeck

In 1977 I moved back to Spalding from Durham and moved back to live with my family at 68 Stonegate. During 1978 I began to look around for a house to buy. I looked at a house on Commercial Road, a house on Church Street at the back of the White Horse, and also went to look at an almost derelict property at Whaplode. I didn't mind the prospect of some renovation work, having acquired some skills from my Dad, but the Whaplode house was just too derelict.

I bought my first house - 162 Spalding Road, Pinchbeck - in 1979, and my Dad helped with the renovation and decorating.

Mum made the full-length curtains for the front and back of the lounge, and the upstairs front bedroom.

The ceilings all had polystyrene tiles - and removing these tiles caused quite a mess of the ceilings, as the cement that had been used was almost impossible to remove without damaging the plaster.

The upstairs ceilings were now in a dreadful state - and had to all be replaced. For a time the whole of the first floor looked like a building site with all the ceilings removed.

Dad suggested that the living room ceiling could be be papered in an attempt to cover some of the mess, but it was a much bigger job to paper this ceiling than we had imagined, and in hindsight it would probably have been easier to replace the entire ceiling.

New aluminium double-glazed windows were fitted to the back and side of the property. The side conservatory was rebuilt as a new music room, and the side bedroom was rebuilt to replace the timber-framed structure. I had to go to Lincoln to fetch the 3" red bricks that were required to match the existing house bricks.

The bathroom and toilet wall was removed and, as the two rooms had originally had different floor levels, it was now possible to install a partly sunken bath. The existing avocado bathroom suite was retained, and the walls covered with cork tiles ...

The kitchen was re-arranged and the bright yellow Formica-covered cupboards reused. The sink was moved to the side of the kitchen, and new tiles were fitted. I did most of the work myself, with the help of my Dad.

The old front door and its surround was replaced with a new mahogany glazed door, with a new glazed surround, the hall floor had to be dug out and new concrete laid with a new damp course, and the stair rails replaced. A friend of mine - Mark Sanderson - helped sand down all the windowsills and other woodwork, and stain them all with Sadolin. This was a mammoth task and took several weeks.

Outside a new front wall was built, and behind the garage a new brick-built workshop was built, to hold all my organ-building tools and equipment, by a bricklayer from Peterborough

One winter a severe gale blew tiles off the roof - which eventually had to be completely replaced - some of the damage can be seen in the photos below.

The garden was a complete mess, as it had been left unattended for many years. The first job was to remove an old apple tree, and to fill in a pond. I installed a new wooden fence along the side of the property as it adjoined a roadway leading to the original 'Glen Heat' workshops.

Once the house had been completed and fully redecorated I decided that I really needed to take in a lodger to help pay the bills, and - as the house had 4 bedrooms - I was able to let two of the rooms. One was let to Lee, and another to Mark - the chef at Isobel's Pantry in Spalding. Lee did not stay all that long, but Mark remained, and with his interest in music and collecting film & pop memorabilia we eventually decided to combine our two hobbies. It also proved invaluable to me to have a chef in the house ...

In 1987 we had acquired the organ from St. Marylebone Church. Initially we were going to store all the pipes and parts for use in other organs, but Harold Cantrill gave me the idea of installing some of the organ at home in my garage - on Spalding Road, Pinchbeck. After a visit from Harold in 1987 I showed him the 4-manual console - which was stored in Adriaan van Egmond's barn on Cowbit Road. He encouraged me to use the console again to construct an organ in my garage. This never actually materialised, as the garage was much too small. However it made us immediately start looking around the district for another home - which would have room to install an organ.

Laburnam House in Northgate (opposite Northgate Mill) was for sale, and adjacent to the house was a barn - which looked like an ideal home for a pipe organ. 'Laburnam House' - which should have been spelt 'Laburnum' - became our new home in 1987. We continued to use the incorrect spelling ....

168 Spalding Road, Pinchbeck was sold to a couple who had previously owned a pub, and one of the family members continues to live in this house to this day.