Did you know you can trade in your old books for an Amazon.co.uk Gift Card to spend on the things you want? Visit the Amazon.co.uk Trade-In Store for more details. |
Frequently Bought Together
Product details
|
Product Description
Review
"As tales of triumph over adversity go, May Savidge's story surely beats much of the competition. Rather than let her 500-year-old home be demolished to make way for a road, she moves it, brick by brick, tile by tile, 100 miles to Norfolk, where she single-handedly rebuilds it. Aged 60 when the rebuilding starts, her work is left to be completed by her niece Christine Adams, who devotes years of her own life to carrying out her remarkable aunt's wishes as well as sifting through May's own archive of letters, diaries, calenders, notes, theatre programmes, dresses, photographs- indeed, virtually everything that ever came into her possession. This is a story of stoicism, heartbreak, suffering and great loss, but in which the indomitable Miss Savidge's determination not to lose her most beloved possession shines brightly and her note-to-self to 'Write funny story of furniture in attic' is fulfilled." - Jill Morris -- Your Family History
Product Description
‘This story will appeal to those who still believe that an Englishman’s home is his castle, and to those who have a soft spot for indomitable old women’ Daily Telegraph The hardback edition of this book, published in 2009 under the title A Lifetime in the Building, saw its extraordinary story featured not only in the Daily Mail but also Hello magazine – and quickly sold out two printings. Now it is re-launched in paperback under a new title to highlight its appeal as the tale of an extraordinary, maverick woman and her even more remarkable achievement. May Savidge lived in a half-timbered house in Hertfordshire. When the council served her with a compulsory purchase notice to make way for a roundabout, May decided she had to move – but so did the house. So she had the whole thing dismantled and shipped to the North Norfolk coast… and then spent the rest of her life rebuilding it, single-handed. Her fame spread around the world. Antiques Roadshow broadcast, unprecedentedly, two features about her house. Now her niece, Christine Adams, who inherited May’s house and completed it – at the cost of her own marriage - tells her aunt’s life story from the voluminous diaries and letters she left behind. Christine Adams now runs a Bed and Breakfast in May Savidge’s old house in Norfolk. Michael McMahon is also the co-author of My Friend the Enemy (978 1 84513 316 0).
Inside This Book
(Learn More)
Tag this product(What's this?)Think of a tag as a keyword or label you consider is strongly related to this product.
Tags will help all customers organise and find favourite items. |
Sell a Digital Version of This Book in the Kindle Store
If you are a publisher or author and hold the digital rights to a book, you can sell a digital version of it in our Kindle Store.
Learn more
Customer Reviews
|
Share your thoughts with other customers:
|
||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Brilliant !,
By
This review is from: Miss Savidge Moves Her House: The Extraordinary Story of May Savidge and her House of a Lifetime (Paperback)
I read this book from start to fnish in one sitting yesterday afternoon. It is a very well written book about an amazing, inspirational, and possibly eccentric, woman who endured great hardships and persisted against bureaucracy to save her beloved mediaeval house from demolition, not only for herself but for future generations. She didn't start this process until she had retired, and worked tirelessly on the reconstruction, mainly single handed, for the rest of her life.This is a book you simply have to read.
6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A solitary woman who asked for little and wasted even less.,
By
This review is from: Miss Savidge Moves Her House: The Extraordinary Story of May Savidge and her House of a Lifetime (Paperback)
May Savidge owned and lived in part of a 500 year old house, in Ware, Herts. When a decision was taken, finally, to demolish the house (not because it was old, but because in the 1960's the fun of building new ring roads, roundabouts etc was all the rage!) Miss Savidge would not let this piece of history go. Almost single handedly, after buying the other half, she took the entire building apart, and had it transported, beam by beam, to Norfolk, where she had bought a building plot. For the next 23 years,following her retirement, she struggled daily, again with very little help, to rebuild her piece of English history. This is only half the story. When the author and her husband inherited the house on Miss Savidge's death, it, and the caravan in which she had lived in dreadful conditions whilst getting the house ready to move into, was packed to the ceilings (literally) with a record of her life. She threw nothing away. She used the top flaps of boxes which had contained washing power, cereals, etc to write shopping lists and notes, which were also retained after use: the boxes themselves where used as filing systems full of copy letters, little notebooks, diaries etc. The house was also full of odd peices of furniture, picked up throughout her life in case they were "suitable for the house". So she had not only left behind the house, a small and possibly unique Hall House, but also a record of a life. It took another eight years for the author to finish the task Miss Savidge had set herself, paid for in part by the sale of some of the odd things found in the house. A fascinating inside view of a tiny piece of history -and a little gem.
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
You couldn't imagine this happening now!,
This review is from: Miss Savidge Moves Her House: The Extraordinary Story of May Savidge and her House of a Lifetime (Paperback)
This is a story about one of those indomitable women who won't let the b.... get her down. Health and safety officialdom would not allow her to re-build her house nowadays...and perhaps that's a good thing. But what a story.
Share your thoughts with other customers: Create your own review
|
Most Recent Customer Reviews |
Customer Discussions
|
This product's forum
Active discussions in related forums
Search Customer Discussions
|
Related forums
|
![[Start the discussion]](http://g-ecx.images-amazon.com/images/G/02/x-locale/communities/discussion_boards/start-new-discussion-sec._V192198663_.gif){kind=small}
Listmania!
Look for similar items by category
Look for similar items by subject
Feedback
- Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?
- I am the Author, and I want to comment on my book.
- I am the Publisher, and I want to comment on this book.
|
