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Housing : Living conditions

  • Thread starter Thread starter colinwilliams1
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Jean the electric meters have a seal on them and if the seal was broken you was up for investigation


Mau-reece
 
i remember when the gas meters took the old 50p's,and our parents meter had a slightly faulty box which had a gap so our dad would use our nans knitting needles to fish out the 50p's ,then slot them back before they was due to empty the meter lol......
 
I remember the gas-man coming and emptying the meter. I used to sit beside him at the table and help him count the pennies (a sure indication of my age).
He had to have a certain amount and any that were left over he gave to me (just a few coppers), I was rich for a few precious moments then my Mom put them back in the gas meter. Riches nearly were mine!
 
Did you collect coke or coal in pram?

In early 50’s I was sent to a coal yard on the corner of Guest Street and either Bridge St West or Little King Street. Luckily for me it was mostly downhill to Clifford St. My memory was it being darned cold waiting in the queue.

I had an aunt (Real or?) Dolly who lived a few doors away from there.

Ray
 
I can remember going to the wood yard on Kingsbury Road, just over the canal bridge from Hardy Spicer’s with an old pram. They used to let us have the off cuts, which would have gone for scrap anyway and we burnt them on the fire to save buying coal.

Those prams were built to last. Probably served several babies before being relegated to transportation. Even then, it lasted years as a goods carrier. Can you imagine doing that with one of today’s buggies? I made sure when my first was born (now nearly 20) that we had a proper pram. Cost an arm and a leg!
 
I used to go with my mom down to Saltley Gas Works to get a pram full of coke.

I remember now the way we would put the pram under this enormous shute thing and the coke would come down into the pram. The "coal man" always wore the leather jerkin and was black from head to foot.

The whole process used to fascinate me!
 
Prams not only got handed down or sideways to other families, but on their last legs we used to pinch the axle and wheels to make go-carts. We got the wood from the bomb peck.

The coal yard I went to was only small, guess they had deliveries via wagon, and the guy used to weigh it on large scales.

Ray
 
We were not 'posh' enough to have a pram. We had a folding push chair with a makers name of Tan Sad. This was 1948 and we would take it to Saltley Gas works and queue to pay for a ticket and then shuffle forward to the coke shute. It was then a long and heavy load to push from the 'Gate' back to Wright Road. It was a bit tricky to get the fire alight - but by golly, once you got the coke fire burning - it gave off a ferocious heat.
 
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Remember those long bars of laundry soap, they were about (if memory serves me well) 12''-14'' long? There was a coarse, green soap (it had bits of grit in it) and a more gentle, yellow 'Starlight' soap. I remember my mother grating-off curls of soap for the laundry boiler/wash-tub.

No 'Reckitts blue-bag Stitcher? (dolly-blue?)
 
Johno, I don't know if they were in the shops in the 30s. My Dad originated in Brearly St, then to Tynedale Crescent in Tysely, then he married my mom and they got a modern council house in Acocks Green. Well, I say modern, it had a downstairs bathroom and an outside toilet. There was a boiler in the bathroom and mom used a small saucepan to get hot water from this boiler to pour over the washing which she used to scrub on a board placed across the bath. I can remember her using big blocks of green soap and a scrubbing brush.
 
Hi Stitcher: I remember a lot of these cleaners from the l940's and their containers such as Silvo, Brasso. We had a pair of brass candlestick made by my grandfather and used Brasso to clean them. My job. I still have the candlesticks here in Canada. I remember Persil, Oxydol, Dreft, Rinso, Lifebuoy soap, Fairy,Sunlight, Vim, Duraglit...I used to polish my bicycle with this. A few years ago I visited Gloucester Docks where the old Grocery warehouse museum was and sadly it had closed. Is there anywhere else with these old products on show.
 
lynne webb said:
Can anyone remember what was used for washing up, I cant remember washing up liquid when I was a kid.
Click to expand...
My mom used to use that green soap that was mentioned earlier. She put the little pieces of soap left over from washing (some people might through it away) in a special implement, it was a metal cage about 3 x 2 inches, on a stick. She used to whish it around in the warm water to get suds.
 
Thanks for that Fashionz, I cant remember what our Mom used but i used to disappear when there was washing up to do.
 
hi we used omo washing powder but people today would not dream of useing washing powder
my daughter gives out to me if i have ran out of liquid and i use wshing powder today if she sees me from time to time
but as long as you rinse after before use you do not get the smell of the powder on your cup when drinking your lyons tea nor onthe dinner plates
happy new year to you all best wishes astonion
 
Hi Stitcher: Had a look round to see what happened to the Museum with grocery items, etc that used to be in a warehouse at Gloucester Docks. It is still in existence in Notting Hill, London. Here is a link to it. I am glad that it's still there because there should be something like this to go and visit and see the items that our grandparents, parents and ourselves used to use. https://www.robertopiecollection.com/Application/Corporate/museum2GB.asp
 
Thanks for that jennyann, can remember my mom blackleading the grate, putting the red stuff on the quarry tiles in the kitchen, doing the washing by hand and getting it spotless, in fact she kept house for three of us sons and dad who was always at work, a sister was in convalescent homes all over the place. Mom had to walk about a mile to the local shops or go into town by bus and there is so much more but it would go off thread. These memories are all bought back when I see these old products.
 
Hello again jennyann, I just looked at the link and the Robert Opie on there is man who compiled the books I am using.
 
Hi Stitcher: That's very interesting about Robert Opie writing a book about his collection. I'm not sure why the collection didn't remain at Gloucester Docks but I tend to think that the rents there went up a lot
and perhaps the Museum wasn't getting the exposure it should have. We had quarry tiles in our front entrance outside and I used to clean them with Mansion polish. Seeing all those cleaning items from those long ago times does bring back memories of how our Mothers and Grandmothers worked so hard to keep everything in the home going. There were few distractions for them. The products in the photos were more powerful in content in those days I remember.
 
R. Opie has compiled several books. 20s, 30s, war years, 50s, 60s and 70s plus a Royal Family scrapbook.
They are excellent reading and well woth getting if you can.
 
Does anyone have any information about how often would an average working class person would have bathed about 1880-90?
What method of batheing would have been most common? In a tub of some sort or would they simply use a washcloth?
I haven't been able to locate any information on the internet. Can anyone recommend a website or a book?

Thanks Karro
 
There is quite a lot of info on bathing in 'At Home' by Bill Bryson (ISBN 978-0-552-77255-6). Each chapter is loosely based on a room in his own house (and old rectory built in 1851 in England, although Bill is American) and then dives off into the history of each area. It's a very interesting read although I found some chapters a bit heavy going.
 
The quick answer is not very often.I lived with my Grandmother from birth 1930 in a back to back house at GROVE Rd
Colmore Avenue Kings Heath.Gas lightning,cold water.one coal fire in the one down room,Lav up the yard.There was
a tin bath which I used as a very young lad.My Gran and her daughter may have used it but I never saw them.
I never had a proper bath untill I went to live with my Dad in Northfield about 1940
Although there was not enough heat to get sweaty
Regards
JH
 
I remember reading books, of the Catherine Cookson type where children were sewn into their clothes - with newspaper in between layers for warmth - for the winter.
Until the mid 1960's I think a bath a week was the normal thing, with a strip-wash every day. When I was a teenager ('66 - '71) I would have a bath about 3 or 4 times a week. We were quick to embrace the daily shower over here in Australia, so refreshing & easy compared to bath night!
Times have certainly changed, we could be a bit too clean now!
In answer to your original question, probably once or twice a year, even if they didn't need it! LOL!
People were afraid of catching a chill, all sorts of superstitions were rife, like not washing your hair on a Sunday or during menstruation.
Strip-washes or dowsing at the water pump were the order of the day for hundreds of years.
I suppose everyone else smelled the same so no-one noticed!
 
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When I lived in Birmiingham I shared a flat for nine months in 1968 with a teacher who was in his first job in Aston (can't remember which school). I remember him telling me of one child in his class who he found had been sewn into his clothes for the winter
 
Something I picked up a while back

Most people got married in June because they took their yearly bath in May, and still smelled pretty good by June. However, they were starting to smell, so brides carried a bouquet of flowers to hide the body odour.

Hence the custom today of carrying a bouquet when getting married.
 
Intersting one this Morturn.
In my 12 years of family history research, I have found exactly one marriage in June. I have seen this email before and personally think it's just been made up and does not contain much in the way of truth. In my experience a heck of a lot of people got married Christmas Day because it was the only day they had off work and got paid for. I can't comment on the bouquet, but I am sure before Victorian times, people had a bath just when they wanted one, not at a certain time of year.
 
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