24 July 1953

Soon after the 24th July 1953 the family living in what is now our house wallpapered the chimney in the bedroom.
Today I continued working on where the chimney passes the bedroom, as required by the sweep.  The old wallpaper  was hanging loose in a few places and the sweep wanted it gone, so down it came. I discovered that whoever put it up pasted a layer of newspaper up first, as a liner. So when the wallpaper was down, on the back was an old newspaper! It took me a while to find a piece with a date but eventually one appeared and here it is...
Dagens Nyheter (The Day's News) 24 July 1953.
The news... Leaders in Korea are preparing to sign a cease-fire agreement. Four Swedish and four Swiss observers have arrived there to act as a neutral commision overseeing the cease fire. (It was signed 3 days later on the 27 July, 1953.) 
It's a strange thought that when the owners of the house were putting up this wallpaper  I was two years old, toddling around Eastcote in the NW of London. 
Bits of the wallpaper, and possibly bits of the newspaper, will probably be seen in some of Janet's collages!
I sent a few photos to the sweep and he agreed that now we can actually light our woodburner - hooray!  I was very tempted but the spring sunshine was warming that room and it was almost too warm in there so I decided to carry on working on the bedroom wall. Maybe tomorrow we'll light our new stove. (See extra, for an unexciting record shot of how the bedroom bit looks today.)