We loved our childhood homes so much we brought them: The powerful emotional pull of nostalgia
Emma Foden cant help but smile whenever she takes a pile of warmed plates from the oven and sets them downwith a clatter on the kitchen worktop.
I love to think of my daughter, in my old bedroom above the kitchen, hearing the sounds of my own childhood, she says.
She smells the same cooking smells wafting up the staircase and she wakes each morning to the same sound of her mother putting the kettle on. I know it sounds weird, but it just feels so special to know that she, and our two boys, are experiencing these cherished memories of mine.
Now and then: Emma Foden outside her childhood home and (right) as a little girl there
In the secluded five-bedroom, two-bathroom home, now worth in the region of 750,000, that Emma, 37, a full-time mother, and her husband Charlie, 42, a marketing consultant, bought earlier this year, history is repeating itself every day.
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Hidden in a warren of winding lanes at Billingshurst, Sussex, it is where Emma and her two younger brothers spent their idyllic childhood, and now, after buying it from her widowed mother, she is raising her own family there six-year-old Phoebe and younger sons, Rufus, three, and Henry, seven months.
But regardless of how happy our childhoodmemories are, the appeal of returning to the home we grew up in is not immediately obvious to most of us. The urge to flee the nest and featherour own is all part of growing up.
Home from home: Emma Foden says the strong emotional ties to her childhood home makes it the perfect place to raise a family
The place where our memories, both good and bad, hang heavy on the walls; where the echoes of our past are too loud to ignore; and where reminders of our parents taste in wallpaper and their questionable DIY efforts lurk in every nook and cranny its not what most people think of as their dream home.
Yet a surprising number find the prospect of owning their childhood home too hard to resist when the opportunity arises.
My father died four years ago and, abouta year later, my mother met someone else and moved out of the house to be closer to him, says Emma. As a family, we would still come back to the house at weekends, but during the week it was lying empty.
Then: Emm! a Foden' s home in 1971...
...and the home today after Emma Foden's family moved in
Meanwhile, we were living in a small, three-bedroom house on a busy main road in Berkshire. The garden was too small for the children to run about in and the traffic noise was constant. It was fine but not exactly idyllic.
By contrast, Emmas own childhood had been exactly that.
Nostalgia: Emma Foden, with her children Pheobe, Rufus and baby Henry in their home
For almost four decades, throughout their married life, her parents lived in the bungalow which is just a short walk through the woods and across the stream from Emmas aunt and uncles house.
In the summer, she camped in the woods with her brothers and cousins, who still retreat to this unspoilt corner of the countryside whenever they can.
It was her husband Charlie who first saw Emmas childhood home as a great opportunity for their own young family.
I was the one that needed convincing, says Emma. As a mum, I think you have a strong urge to make a home for your own family, and I wasnt sure Id be comfortable surrounded by my parents furniture or living with the dcor Id grown up with.
But now were here, I can see thats a pretty small price to pay for giving our children such a special place to grow up.
But buying the house at a price that was fair to the rest of her family was a more considerable cost for Emma.
People assume that if you buy a house that is already in the family, you get a bargain. But thats just not the case, she says. You cant do your family out ! of what is rightfully theirs.
My mother and brothers needed a fair deal. And, whereas in ordinary circumstances you might bargain a little on the price when you find out that the roof is leaking or the chimney needs fixing, you cant do that on your family home.
Happy memories: Emma Foden in 1979 outside her childhood home that she now owns
You are committed emotionally. You have to accept it, warts and all.
Theres no doubt living cheek-by-jowl with ones childhood memories is not for everyone.
If youre going to move in, you have to be happy revisiting the past all the time, says Emma.
There are a lot of memories in this house, of course. My father died here, and some of my friends couldnt understand why Id want to live here with that memory. But it all depends on how your memories make you feel. Im comfortable with mine.
A step back in time: Bryher Scudamore outside her home today (left) and in 1965, aged 15
When I see my daughter whizzing down the hill on her bike, I remember exactly how that felt when I was six. When she says shes scared of walking past the long hallway near the bathroom when its dark, I vividly remember how it used to terrify me, too.
But, by the same token, I dont want to feel like this place is a museum of my childhood. Its our house now, and the challenge is to make our own mark on it.
Lutricia Norris, 51, who now owns the farm she! grew up on, near Billericay in Essex, has experienced the powerful emotional pull that can bring a person home when they least expect it.
Keeping it in the family: Bryher Scudamore's mother Peggy (centre with her daughters) wanted the house to stay in the family
In 2002, when she was recovering from breast cancer, she suddenly felt quite certain that she needed to be back on the farm, where her elderly mother, Pat, was still living.
When we were kids, we used to moan about not living closer to town, and my mum would say: One day youll appreciate being away from it all. And she was soright.
I hadnt lived at home since I was 17, and I had a lovely, big four-bedroom house a few miles away. But, when I was diagnosed with cancer, I was shocked, and I just couldnt shake the feeling that I needed to be somewhere totally safe and secure. I just knew I wanted to be at home, close to my Mum.
'In my mind it was her house but I realised I always loved it': Bryher Scudamore's mother Peggy, pictured in 1960, was keen to sell to her daughter
Lutricia, a part-time actress and single mother of two grown-up daughters, sold her house and moved, initially, into a mobile home on the farm, allowing her mother to spend the last years of her life in the 1920s bungalow where she had raised Lutricia, her two sisters and her brother.
In 2004, she decided to buy her mothers house, which had the benefit of providing her mother! with a lump sum to support herself.
Although she believes her mother might have left the house to her in her will, Lutricia insisted on buying it out of fairness to her siblings.
Like mother, like daughter: Bryher Scudamore (left) moved in after her mother died and said the move inspired her to write a book
Its hard to explain my decision, because I was just following my heart, she says.
But I had no doubts about giving up my house to move back here; it felt absolutely right.
Partly, of course, it was so I could be there for Mum and she could be there for me we had always been very close but the place itself had a profound effect on me.
'Although I didn't know it for so many years, I am rooted to this place like an old tree': Bryher Scudamoresays everyday brings back memories of the house including playing in the garden with her sister
Picking apples from the same trees I picked from as a child; looking out of my windows and seeing the same, unspoilt views the fields where my dad walked, bringing rabbits and vegetables back home for the pot, and the rusty old grass-roller propped up near the garden shed, which still has I love Peter Cole (my first boyfriend) etched into the door all of these things just made me happier, more settled, more positive.
This is it for me. I can! see mys elf living here for ever.
When her mother Pat died six years later, it was Lutricias intention to pull the dilapidated bungalow down and build something similar in its place. But, she says: I havent the heart to do it just yet. At the moment, Im enjoying the memories it holds.
In contrast, when Bryher Scudamore following her mother Peggys death in 1999 took on the Grade II-listed townhouse in Upper Norwood, South London where she lived as a child, she wanted to make it her own before she and her husband Paul moved in.
Several times, my mother had said: Darling, are you sure you wouldnt want to live here? and I had been quite adamant that I didnt, says Bryher, 60.
In my mind it was her house covered in Sixties wallpaper, freezing cold, full of leaks and in much need of renovation.
But when she died, her neighbour asked me again: Why dont you come back and live here? And suddenly, I couldnt think of any reason not to.
Refit: Before moving into the house Bryher Scudamore put in new central heating and redecorated to put her stamp on the house
I realised I had always loved this house especially its location, tucked away in a quiet little grove, where we played safely as children, just like the neighbours children dotoday.
She and her travel writer husband Paul, 63, who dont have children, sold their own home half a mile away and bought Bryhers sisters share of the house.
Before making the move, however, there was work to be done. Chimneys and walls needed rebuilding, the roof needed waterproofing and bathroom leaks (which had infuriated Bryhers mother for decades) needed plugging once and for all.
Exploring: Bryher Scudamore said redecorating meant peeling off layers of wallpaper she associated with different periods of her childhood
As much as I loved my mother, we couldnt leave the house as it was, she says. The house was bought for 2,500 in 1955. Now that it has been renovated its worth an estimated 750,000.
As we peeled off the layers of wallpaper, so the years went back. Each pattern was a flashback to a childhood Christmas or a hot summer. Oh God, I remember this one! Id shout as we scraped away at it, says Bryher, who adds that exploring the house that had been her mothers home for so many years inspired her to start her own family history website, autodotbiography.com, which she works on full-time.
During that time, I felt it stopped being my mothers house and started being ours although I have always hoped that she would have liked what weve done.
For Bryher, the house will always echo her childhood, no matter how different it may look now.
Despite the new central heating and the radical change in dcor, Ill always remember what it was like to dress under the covers when there was frost on the inside of my bedroom window. I will always think of my family whenever Paul and I sit down at the walnut dining table.
Although I didnt know it for so many years, I am rooted to this place like an old tree. And thats the way I like it.
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