A former Redbridge resident recalls the day her childhood home was bombed in World War Two.

JAN Gilham’s childhood home holds vivid memories for her – particularly the day she lay on the floor looking at the sky after the roof had been destroyed by a bomb during World War Two.

Jan was born in the house in New Road, Seven Kings, in 1939 and her experiences during the war inspired her to craft a 1/12 scale model of the home.

She started building it out of card and wood in 2003, and finished the project last year.

“It annoyed me that boys can play with model railways,” said Jan, who now lives in St Leonard’s East Sussex. “Girls should have an equivalent and that’s what pushed me on to make this house. I wanted to make something more realistic than a dolls’ house, something women could relate to.”

Redbridge Museum, Clements Road, Ilford, has agreed to take her house and she plans to return to the borough for the first time in years to assemble it when it is installed later in the year.

“I have not been back to Redbridge in years. I can’t wait to see how it has changed,” she added.