Who is My Neighbour?

The programmes in a recent television series began with the statement, 'History is all around us.'  I know that's true but, as illustrated by the old story about cobblers' children being the worse shod, we're often guilty of not appreciating - or even being aware of - what we live amongst, because it is so familiar in its present day form.  I'm not yet three weeks into my new life in what are still strange surroundings, and so I'm far more aware of my environment than will be the case in a few months' time.  

I'm aware that I'm now living in a former mining area, but as yet I haven't learned anything about the local dimensions of that history, and have only stereotypes (not always reliable!) to go on.  One of these images is of 'back-to-back' houses, and I have only to look out of my window for a present-day example.  The standard illustration of such housing is of parallel streets of dwellings with no gaps between them, and just a small interval between front door and street ... or none at all.  

Depending on the space available, each house might have a small back yard, beyond which a narrow passage separates this from a similar back yard of the houses in the next street.  The other day I walked along the passage beyond my own back gate, which is (probably unusually) wide enough along which to drive a small car, although I have no intention to try this for myself.  I noticed that some of the sheds that back onto the passage still retain the little doors that, in past days, would have facilitated the delivery of coal for the fires.

As I write this - without moving an inch - I can see not only my own courtyard, but that of three other houses.  Although it's quiet now, through my open window I often hear the sound of children playing and, although the  details are indistinguishable, I'm aware of adults enjoying themselves chatting in their gardens ... or arguing, as was the case for a while earlier today.

Compared to my former home in a purpose-built block of flats, the neighbours here - although more distant - have a greater impact on life.  In my two decades in the First Garden City, I don't suppose I really got to know more than a dozen neighbours in three different flats, and only about three as a result of actual conversation.  I have already seen enough of the three neighbours whose back ways I can see, to form an opinion of their lives (whether true or not, I may or may not discover in coming weeks or months!).

The concept of neighbour is a broad one.  It's usually thought to refer to the people living on either side in the same street, but in my new situation the three householders I have referred to comprise one 'next door' (the one on the other side being obscured from view by my own kitchen and further by a tall fence) and two in the next street.  I have come to the conclusion that all four of us, two men and two women, live alone and, while our lives overlap only a little as we use our back gates and the passage between, it's clear that the neighbour with whom I shall have most contact will be the one adjacent ... if only purely as a result of the distance of the other two from my door.