The family home at 144 Burnley Street had been named ‘Enfield’. It was situated on the corner with Murphy Street. My grandparents purchased Enfield in 1921, following the end of The Great War. Their eldest son had been killed on the Western Front and another had sustained life-threatening injuries. When the family moved to Richmond, my father was a four-year-old child.
Enfield was a free-standing terrace house built in 1901 by David Mitchell, a builder of enterprise and father of the world famous Opera Singer, Helen Porter Mitchell, known to the world as Dame Nellie Melba. Mitchell lived further along Burnley Street in his house, ‘Doonside’.
While Enfield was a home of some significance, classified as a building worthy of preservation, it was demolished in 2013 to make way for a multi-story residential development.
I have great memories of living in Enfield, and my life in Richmond was of happy times. I lived with my family in my grandmother’s home. It was an experience where family values were paramount.