It's fair to say that Bill Pearce knew every nail, brick, tile and deck pebble around here. He cut the timber, cut and glued the mahogany laminate on the architraves and laid every tiny mosaic tile in the frame he made for the bespoke bath.
He knew every nook and cranny because he created them all. An electrical draughtsman by day, he built this house by night and weekends, from plans he drew in the late 1950s and began in 1960, while living with his wife at his parents' home in Epsom, a house his father had built.
"His father was a builder. Dad wasn't a builder but you couldn't really say he wasn't either," says Leanne, the youngest of the three Pearce children for whom this is the only family home they've known. Parents Marie and Bill have died and their three children and spouses have discovered more stories to add to the memories of life here when the hills were inhabited by cows and everyone knew the names of everyone in the street.
The Pearce children moved here in 1966, living downstairs and sleeping upstairs in one bedroom as their dad painstakingly worked on what became his 10-year project. The upstairs framing was their jungle gym; their front lounge, years later, the best viewing spot on Guy Fawkes Night.
