Website reconnects residents with childhood homes

Claire Marsh says returning to her old Eastleigh house "brought some peace".

A woman who revisited her childhood home 36 years on has said the experience brought her some peace. Claire Marsh, from Eastleigh, Hampshire, connected with the house's current owner through a new website designed for sharing memories about the places residents once lived. After leaving a comment and some photos on HouseStories she soon found herself on the doorstep of the house she grew up in.

She told the BBC: "I always missed this house. We moved into a bigger house with more land but I still miss this house. I love this house."

Today Claire lives less than half a mile from the property and drives past it every day. She grew up in the house until the age of 10 with her parents and four brothers. Mum and Dad Lynn and Mike Burrows joined her for the recent visit.

The house was derelict when they originally moved in 1976 and it needed renovating. Mike said: "I'm so pleased to see everything left as we left it, and what I built, what I made. I'm overjoyed with it."

"Whenever I drive past this house, it always makes me smile," Claire explained. The Burrows household was set within three acres of land that was teeming with wildlife. Ascot Close now covers most of the area where Claire used to keep animals and ride motorbikes with her siblings.

"I always was surrounded by animals and plants and the house became part of my grounding, and I think more than anything this house is a grounding house. "I'm actually married to a farmer now so I've still got the plants and still got the animals around me."

Current homeowner Roger Doughty said: "I actually picture it in those days as probably being quite utopian... the kids running around on their little enduro motorbikes." HouseStories was set up earlier this year so Hampshire residents could create a timeline and archive of the memories attached to the homes they have lived in. It has since been expanded to cover the rest of the country.

Donna Line, from Droxford, admitted she started the website because she was "nosey". "I'm always on Rightmove looking at houses and I just thought there are so many stories that are lost, because everyone moves, and I just wanted a place where people can save their memories." "It's brought some peace to my life because for so many years I've been wanting to come back in and see it," Claire said about her visit.

"It's just been lovely to come back and spend some time here looking around and reminiscing and making new friends too."