{{Infobox building , name = Mr. Straw's House , former_names = , alternate_names = , status = , image = Mr Straws House.jpg , image_alt = , image_size = , caption = The house in 2004 , building_type = , architectural_style = , structural_system = , material = , cost = , ren_cost = , client = , owner =

National Trust The National Trust, formally the National Trust for Places of Historic Interest or Natural Beauty, is a charity and membership organisation for heritage conservation in England, Wales and Northern Ireland. In Scotland, there is a separate and ...

, location = 5-7 Blyth Grove, Worksop,

Nottinghamshire Nottinghamshire (; abbreviated Notts.) is a landlocked county in the East Midlands region of England, bordering South Yorkshire to the north-west, Lincolnshire to the east, Leicestershire to the south, and Derbyshire to the west. The traditi ...

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

, coordinates = {{coord, 53.3150, -1.1154, type:landmark_region:GB, display=inline,title , completion_date = {{Start date, 1905 , renovation_date = , floor_count = , architect = , awards = , designations = , ren_architect = , ren_firm = , ren_str_engineer = , ren_serv_engineer = , ren_civ_engineer = , ren_oth_designers = , ren_qty_surveyor = , ren_awards = , rooms = , website = {{url, www.nationaltrust.org.uk/mr-straws-house Mr Straw's House is a

property in Worksop,

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotland, Wales and North ...

. The Edwardian

semi-detached A semi-detached house (often abbreviated to semi) is a single family duplex dwelling house that shares one common wall with the next house. The name distinguishes this style of house from detached houses, with no shared walls, and terraced house ...

house and its contents have remained largely unchanged since the 1920s. It opened to the public in 1993.

History

The

Edwardian The Edwardian era or Edwardian period of British history spanned the reign of King Edward VII, 1901 to 1910 and is sometimes extended to the start of the First World War. The death of Queen Victoria in January 1901 marked the end of the Victori ...

semi-detached house built around 1905 and located on Blyth Grove in Worksop, was the residence of the Straw family and is now cared for by the

. William Straw moved to the town in 1886 with his brother Benjamin and the two siblings established a successful grocers shop at 130 Bridge Street. The business, marketed as a tea dealer and seedsman as well as grocers, did well for itself, and on 15 September 1896, in Worksop Priory Church, William married Florence Ann Winks, daughter of the prosperous butcher and later councillor David Wall Winks, who owned the butchers across the street from the Straw's Grocery Shop. Having bought out his brother Benjamin in 1889, William was solely responsible for the business, living above the shop with Florence and their three sons, William (Jr) (1898), Walter (1899) and David (1901), who died at around eighteen months old in 1903. It was not until 1923 that the family moved out to their new house on Blyth Grove and Florence quickly got to work on the decoration of her new home, choosing the latest wallpapers and carpets to create a fashionable and modern place for entertaining and relaxing. After living at the shop for so long the move to a separate family home was the chance to show off the success of the business. After the death of her husband in 1932 Florence made few alterations to the house, as a Victorian woman in mourning this would have been expected of her and her contemporaries would have found nothing strange about her choice to keep his pipes by the fire and his collar box in the bedroom. When she died in 1939 William and Walter lived in the house together, and their frugal way of living and make do and mend attitude resulted in the house largely avoiding modernisation. William Jr had spent much of the 1920s and 1930s in London, initially studying English Literature at

King's College London King's College London (informally King's or KCL) is a public research university located in London, England. King's was established by royal charter in 1829 under the patronage of King George IV and the Duke of Wellington. In 1836, King's ...

before going on to teach at

City of London College London Guildhall University was a university in the United Kingdom from 1992 to 2002, established when the City of London Polytechnic was awarded university status. On 1 August 2002, it merged with the University of North London to form Londo ...

. Moving home in 1939 he took over the running of the house, while his brother ran the family business until his retirement in 1962. Neither brother married but they both had a variety of hobbies and interests, including

archaeology Archaeology or archeology is the scientific study of human activity through the recovery and analysis of material culture. The archaeological record consists of artifacts, architecture, biofacts or ecofacts, sites, and cultural landscap ...

and walking, and were involved in various local societies and their chosen place of worship, St John's. After Walter's death in 1976 William was alone until he died in 1990, the last few years of his life seeing him frequently in and out of hospital. When he died William generously left his collection of around 30,000 everyday objects to the National Trust, along with his money. The family home on Blyth Grove, and the other half of the semidetached property (which William had bought around 1940 and rented out) were left to the last set of tenants. Luckily the tenants sold to the National Trust, enabling the collection to stay in the house just as the Straws lived with it, providing a fascinating glimpse into a forgotten time.

National Trust ownership

Though the Straw family took good care of their home William was unable to keep on top of the upkeep in his later years and the time when the property was uninhabited at the end of William's life, saw the cold and damp have an inevitable effect on the property. With these issues resolved and the house rewired it was ready to receive visitors and the doors opened to the public in 1993. Due to the small scale of the property visits need to be booked in advance as there is a maximum group size of four. The house opens Tuesday through to Saturday, closing for its winter clean in November and reopening in March. There are various special events organised and the display room and tour change yearly.

External links

Mr Straw's House
- official site Houses in Nottinghamshire Historic house museums in Nottinghamshire National Trust properties in Nottinghamshire Worksop