Old Days, II

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From Nottinghamshire Within Living Memory. This passage is almost exactly as I remember domestic life until the age of five when we moved from Welbeck to Woodhouse Mill. My Grandma -----'s kitchen stayed the same for as long as I remember, except that in later years she had a small methylated spirit stove to boil water for tea. There was indeed a bath in the kitchen, boxed in with a hinged board on top. (There was an identical arrangement in the old cottage at Shefford too.)

Welbeck Colliery Village was the name of our village until about 1974; it was changed then to Meden Vale, taking the name from the River Meden which runs through it.

Our memories of home life were of the coal fire, as coal was a part of a miner's wage and was delivered once a month. It was tipped on the street and had to be brought round to the coalhouse on the yard by bucket or barrow and anyone willing to help, sometimes a man, would offer to get in the coal for a shilling - if you had a shilling to spare. On one side of the coal fire was the oven, on the other side a boiler to heat the water. This was filled and emptied by a ladle; there was a mantelpiece to stand photos etc. and a fender. The fireplace itself was blackleaded, it really shone - the wife's pride and joy. All the cooking was done on this fireplace, and bread was made two or three times a week, a lovely smell to greet the children coming home from school. Cakes were all home-made. There was always a fire-guard around the fire; this was used to air and dry the washing. [OG Note - Some lucky families had a clothes rack suspended from the ceiling and operated by a rope and pulley. Clothes could dry there on the frequent rainy days.]

On washday the water had to be heated in a coal-fire copper, which stood in a corner of the kitchen. The washing was done by hand with a rubbing board or a posher. The copper was sometimes used to boil the puddings for Christmas. The first washing machine was worked by hand; ironing was done with a flat iron, heated on the fire. In some houses the kitchen was called a scullery. In these there would be a dark-coloured stone sink with one cold water tap and also a mangle with large wooden rollers. [OG Note - EVERYthing was ironed, including bed linens, towels and underwear! The irons had wooden handles which sometimes charred from the heat of the fire. Scorching of clothes was a constant hazard and sheets sometimes had the scorched imprint of an iron on them.]

Rugs for the floor were made of cast-off clothes, pegged through hessian. We loved to have a go at pegging when we were sat around the fire at night. One thing I remember though, those rugs collected a lot of dust. They had to be taken outside for a good shake - no vacuum cleaners then! Wallpamur was used to decorate the walls during the Second World War, sometimes stippling was done with a sponge or hairbrush. Most beds had metal headboards and bottoms, the base of the beds had coil springs. Mattresses were either flock or feather filled. These needed a good shake up to remove the lumps.

Our houses had no bathrooms but eventually a bath was installed in one corner of the kitchen. When the bath was not in use it was covered by a large board - the bath board we called it. One good point; it was lovely in the winter having a bath in the same room as the fireplace. The toilet was outside on the backyard; in the winter the pipes would get frozen up. Rents for the houses were parlour-type 12s 6d a week, non parlour-type 11s 6d. [OG Note--Pre-kitchen bath, people used a large zinc bath tub which was usually brought in on Saturday nights. The remainder of the time it hung on the back of the coalhouse door. Miners had available communal baths at the pit and thus came home clean every day. Baby-bathing, face- and hand-washing, sponge baths and teeth-cleaning took place at the kitchen sink. There were other fireplaces in the house, certainly in the living room and I believe there might have been a fireplace in at least one of the bedrooms. I do remember it got so cold sometimes there were fern gardens from frost on the INSIDE of the window panes. Floors were bare, unfinished wood, sometimes covered by linoleum and, of course, the hooked rugs, which often were made in geometric patterns. The "parlour," called the front room in my time, was rarely used. There wasn't enough coal to heat an extra room and I remember it being used only to accommodate the dead in their coffins before the funeral.]

People grew most vegetables themselves in their gardens, wine was made at home from elderberries, rabbits were plentiful for making stews and pies. [OG note--Grandma Brookes also made nettle beer and raspberry vinegar. Some people, like us, kept their own chickens on the back garden.] The electricity we used in our home came direct from the pit where it was generated. If extra power were needed at the pit down would go our lights. Power cuts were a regular happening; the more lights we put on, the dimmer the light. We had gas street lighting down the main road to Warsop, none in the village. [OG Note--there was gas lighting during my time in the village, 1945 to 1950 and visits to relatives afterwards, of course. There was some sort of finely pebbled glass on the front doors, four panes, I think, and as a child I was fascinated by the way the panes refracted the gas light, making it look like a static sparkler. The old black-leaded stove had solid iron shelves in the oven and these were heated to put in the beds to chase away the damp and cold. Bricks were also used, wrapped in old flannel cloth, and there were hot water bottles too. They never quite managed to chase the winter cold and chill away for very long, though, and chillblains often resulted.]

-- Anonymous, July 04, 2002

Answers

Ah, the joys of central heating! (:

I was hopeful that you'd post another installment. Thanks! I liked the part about staring through the old windows and seeing the light flicker. I did that when I visited Greenfield Village as a child and stood in one of the homes. I found myself wondering if children in another era did that, too.

For those unfamiliar with Greenfield Village, that, along with the Henry Ford Museum, was part of Henry Ford's contribution to history. He had various buildings -- among them, Thomas Edison's lab, the Wright Bros' Bicycle Shop, and others -- brought to Dearborn, Michigan and set about refurbishing them as they once were. The Museum contains all the early Ford cars, farm tools, and other equipment. It's a cool place to visit. I used to go there a lot when I lived in MI.

-- Anonymous, July 04, 2002


Reminds me of the descriptions in Martha Grimes' novels. Also explains a few things, the posher, for example.

thanks for continuing.

Also reminds me of my grandparents' house in Minnesota. A perfectly fine house for them, but my family moved in for a while back in the sixties when the airlines were grounded. At that time we were living in Jacksonville, FL. We couldn't go back to our house in California until the renters lease was up, so, off to Minnesota we went. I remember going into town so Mom and Grandma could shop at the grocer, while us kids went with Dad to walk the town. Grandpa waited in the car for Mom and Grandma, and then they would drive thru town looking for us if we hadn't come back in time.

Things were tight, but us little kids had no idea. I think I was 3 or 4 at the time.

-- Anonymous, July 05, 2002


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