Ilford house passing into new hands after more than 100 years with the same family

Violet Perkins (Image: Archant)

The small terraced house in Buckingham Road, described as a tenement in the 1911 census, was first inhabited by Violet Perkins and her parents, five siblings, grandmother and uncle in the early 1900s.

The house in Buckingham Road as it is today (Image: Archant)

Violet, formerly Popplewell, died last week, aged 93, after spending her whole life living at the property which will go up for auction.

Her nephew, Mick Popplewell, said: “She attended South Park School, as did all her elder siblings including Pansy, Ken, Dick, Cecil and Arthur. But one by one they started work, married and left home, all except Vi.

V2 rocket

“She married Jim, also known as Bunny, on April 21, 1945, and stayed on to make her home in Buckingham Road, initially with her dad and uncle Tom.”

Sadly her mother, Gertrude, was killed in a V2 rocket attack in South Park, South Park Road, Ilford, a year before Vi’s marriage.

Mr Popplewell, 69, who lives in west Yorkshire, said: “The family moved on but they all seemed to come back at one time or another ­including my family and I ­after my grandma was killed.

“After my grandad, Hudson, died in 1949, Vi and Bun had the house to themselves for the first time in 22 years of marriage.”

Mrs Perkins, who never had any children of her own, worked on the assembly line at Plessey Communications, in Ley Street, Ilford.

Mr Popplewell added: “Vi was a lovely woman all her life and even at 93, she probably had a better memory than me. She loved the social side of working and her ­siblings used to gather at the house most Sunday evenings to play cards.

“Her brother Cis was also a local sporting celebrity having played for the Ilford Football Club in the days thousands turned out to watch the games in Lynn Road, Newbury Park.”