Mr Straw's House

History

William Straw senior ran a seed and grocery business in Worksop, and the house dates from the early years of the twentieth century. After his wife died, their sons William and Walter left her belongings exactly as she had arranged them and carried on living there largely unchanged for the rest of their lives. William Straw died in 1990 and left the house, with its contents intact, to the National Trust.

Architecture

The house is a modest Edwardian semi-detached villa, typical of early twentieth-century suburban housebuilding rather than architect-designed grandeur, and its plainness is part of what makes the untouched interior so striking.

Worth knowing

The Straw brothers never married and made almost no changes to their parents' home for around fifty years, leaving behind everyday items such as old diaries, receipts and grocery packaging still in place. It stands as one of the most complete surviving records of ordinary English domestic life between the wars.