Dorothy C. Maguire (nee Coles) recalls the family house of Colesberg.

MY GRANDFATHER William Coles, a stone mason, came from Shropshire to Silverdale in the 1890s.

He worked on the building of the Williamson Memorial, Lancaster, walking through fields to Lancaster each week.

Towards the end of the 20th Century, he bought land on Church Hill, Arnside, where his family home of Colesberg was built.

The stone was quarried 100 yards away. It was a substantial three-storeyed stone house, where my father and his brothers and sisters were brought up.

After my grandfather's untimely death, my father, Albert Coles, ran his own building business for nearly 50 years, building many houses in Arnside and the surrounding area.

As the Coles family grew up and left the family home, only my Aunt Cissie remained in Colesberg, which she ran as a guest house.

During the Second World War, house building was curtailed and my father could only do 'jobbing' work. In order to have the capital to start building again after the war, he sold our detached house on Church Hill and we moved into Colesberg for a year, while he began building the semis on Hollins Lane.

We had rooms on the top floor of Colesberg, and it was so cold up there.

I can remember the ground floor so well. From the long passage, a lounge and dining room were at the front.

The big old-fashioned kitchen had a big black oven either side of the grate, a massive wooden table and chairs, and a dresser with crockery.

A box on the wall had all the room numbers on, which rang when attention was needed.

But what I remember was early in the morning, on switching on the light, cockroaches ran everywhere, even from my shoes! I was so glad when we moved to Hollins Lane.

Eventually my father made Colesberg into three flats, maintaining its lovely, fine, pine staircase.