Soft sepia memories

I was in Bingley one day and decided to revisit one of my old 'stamping grounds'. This is Wingfield House, now a nursing home. Many, many years ago it was a training centre run by Bradford Council and I spent a happy decade from the late 1970s to late 1980s based there. My desk was beside that first floor window on the left hand side - though I spent more time in front of flip charts in the other rooms than at my desk. It was a lovely place to work, a grand old mansion with beautiful woodwork and some lovely stained glass and tiles. It was also a fantastic team to work in and, looking back, they were among my most treasured and fruitful working years. Very happy memories, both of my working life there and my personal life at that time. 

It was here that I first discovered I was going deaf (when a colleague suddenly left the office to answer a ringing phone elsewhere that I hadn't heard); here that I made some of the best and closest friends I have ever had (and still have). Here that I navigated pregnancy and my daughter's early life. (The fridge used to get stocked with expressed milk, labelled so my colleagues didn't add it to their coffee!) It was from here that I made the dash to collect her, then aged four, from school, that time when I forgot it was my turn to fetch her. Still one of the most guilt-inducing moments of my life! (She said: 'I thought perhaps you didn't love me any more.'!) The gates I used to enter through are now bricked up, since the extensive grounds (orchards, snowdrops, bluebells, lawns!) were sold off in the early 1990s to become a luxury residential housing estate. My memories aren't bricked up; they all came flooding back. 

Wingfield is sited in one of the most attractive residential areas of Bingley, with some beautiful old houses infilled with more modern properties. When I worked there, I wasn't much of a walker and didn't have much free time anyway, so I didn't really take advantage of the lovely surroundings - with hindsight, a missed opportunity.