New neighbours coming?

The young couple in the bungalow across the road are moving out this weekend.  I've been wondering when it would happen as there has been a "sold" board on show for several weeks.  They don't seem to have been living there all that long - perhaps about three years or so - but have spent a great deal of money, especially on landscaping the back garden.  Their departure has made me realise just how deep people's roots go in this road.  Next month it will be 44 years since we bought this house.  The family who lived then in the adjoining house down the hill is still there - at least in part.  Two of the children have married and now have children of their own, the husband died some years ago and his widow has only recently become too frail to continue living there with only her younger son, a bachelor of about 50, so has moved in with her daughter.  The house beyond that has a widow living there and she and her late husband must have moved in at least 25 years ago if not nearer to 30. Going up the road, our next-door neighbour moved in with his wife and two children more than 30 years ago.  The children have moved out and the wife died last year.  I wonder how long it will be before either or both of the houses next door to us will be on the market?

Up the hill beyond Tom, the next two houses still have the same owners as when we moved in, and there is another couple across the road who were also here then. Nearly all our other near neighbours have been here at least ten years.

Plus ça change etc.

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This resident has been around quite a while as well.  She is (was) Phoebe Hessel, a cross-dresser from the 18th century.  Buried in St Nicholas churchyard in 1821, you can read her fascinating story here.