I remember gas lighting in a friend's house in Fife in the late 1950s. A bit of googlery says that except for rural areas it was mostly phased out long before that, but this was in a town. Does anyone else remember domestic gas lighting and when it ended?
I have vague memories of gas lighting at aged relatives homes in both Kincardine (Fife) and Alloa. But other homes in both places, including my grandparents, had electricity and had done so for a while, so I think this was from choice/suspicion of new things. This was in the ‘60s . The village I grew up in, Kingskettle, still had gas streetlights on one back road - 2 of them- and someone who climbed a ladder to light them each night. They were replaced in the early ‘70s.
I remember gas mantles in my bedroom when I was a child.
They were never lit, as far as I recall, as my father had installed electric lights.
I do not know if the gas was still connected but it might have been safer to stick with using gas mantles, as I recall getting the occasional mild shock from the plug socket near my bed!
I recall many power cuts during the "Three Day Week" political crisis of 1973-4. One local shop however had not had its gas light fittings removed so was able to be illuminated while all others were in darkness.
My current apartment, in a pre-WW2 building, has a scarcity of electric sockets. One in the bedroom, one in the living room, one in the hall, one in the bathroom. The kitchen is the only room well provided.
Do make sure that the circuit is not overloaded. In North America that means that unless designated otherwise, the appliances on any paired socket should together consume less than 15 amps. Otherwise, things might get uncomfortably warm.
Do make sure that the circuit is not overloaded. In North America that means that unless designated otherwise, the appliances on any paired socket should together consume less than 15 amps. Otherwise, things might get uncomfortably warm.
Good point. Actually, our TV entertainment system comes close. Staying under 15 amps though.
I grew up in the city where we had electricity, but my grandfather on a farm did not have any until I was seven or eight. It was simply not worth it to the electric company to string wires to farms that were far apart. A government program finally provided current to the farmers. I still remember the smell of the lamps.
I don't remember any of my grandparents having electricity. It was a Tilley lamp in the main room and candles going to bed.
What I do recall is only one warm room in the house - the one with an open fire. Everywhere else was cold, to be galloped through clutching a hot water bottle.
Next, we move into stone hot water bottles... Rubber ones eventually perished and burst in the bed, with consequences that sometimes needed a lot of explaining: stone was a good option. They weren't really stone of course - just a crude form of china, I think. They kept warm for a long time, but if one rolled out of your bed and hit the floor in the middle of the night the noise would wake everyone in the house.
The stone(ware) hot water bottles were why, even when rubber ones came in, it was referred to as a 'jar'. When I moved away from Ireland I got funny looks from housemates when I said I was going to bed with a jar.
Next, we move into stone hot water bottles... Rubber ones eventually perished and burst in the bed, with consequences that sometimes needed a lot of explaining: stone was a good option. They weren't really stone of course - just a crude form of china, I think. They kept warm for a long time, but if one rolled out of your bed and hit the floor in the middle of the night the noise would wake everyone in the house.
My grandmother was still using one of those when she lived with us, in the 1960s.
When I was growing up my mother spent most of the evening doing “bottle fatigue”. First she took the stone bottle up to my bed. Then transferred it to my sister’s bed, replacing it with a hot water bottle in mine. Process repeated, moving “ Stoney” into my parents’ bed. No central heating, so the only warm room was the living room with open fire + back boiler.
My parents never had central heating, even in their next house ( 1970- 2001).
I now use a wheat bottle, heated in the microwave.
I haven't used anything to warm the bed for donkeys years. In fact, I use a summer weight duvet all through winter. In the height of summer, I just use the duvet cover. I overheat in bed very easily.
I don't remember any of my grandparents having electricity. It was a Tilley lamp in the main room and candles going to bed.
What I do recall is only one warm room in the house - the one with an open fire. Everywhere else was cold, to be galloped through clutching a hot water bottle.
Yes. The house I was born in (in NE England) had one warmish room with an open coal fire (big black range). We used to have cold winters in the 40s and 50s when I was growing up and, often enough, there was frost on the inside of the bedroom windows.
Combine that with an outside toilet and my memories are of feeling cold from November to April. Yes, we had stone jar hot water bottles.
We always had rubber hot water bottles at home. However I remember having a stone one when visiting an elderly couple on the Isle of Wight in 1982. They had been In Service at Osborne House.
My gran's bedroom, in her single storey house, shared a wall with next-door's kitchen, where they kept the range burning constantly - so she never needed to heat her bedroom! Her neighbours finally moved out in the late 1970s, and they hadn't had any improvements made in their (rented) house since they moved in in 1939.
But weren't the patterns drawn by Jack Frost beautiful!
Do you know, I think they were.
When we moved in 1955 to a much warmer council house, (with a bath and an inside toilet too) the following winter was very cold. I half expected the Jack Frost patterns but they were a thing of the past. And, to be honest, not missed!
I remember gas mantles in my bedroom when I was a child.
They were never lit, as far as I recall, as my father had installed electric lights.
I do not know if the gas was still connected but it might have been safer to stick with using gas mantles, as I recall getting the occasional mild shock from the plug socket near my bed!
We moved in to a house in about 1980 that had previously been owned by an elderly gentleman who hadn't done much in the way of modification since not long after the war.
When we moved in, there was a back boiler behind the fireplace in the living room to heat water. There were old-style round-pin electric sockets, and a handful of paraffin lamps. No gas lamps, though.
My brother and sister in law rented a house that only had one power point and I think it plugged into a light socket. I can't imagine it myself, but I did believe them knowing the part of town in which the house was built.
I remember a time in England when many people talked about the Light Bill, presumably from a time when all home electricity was used for was lighting.
In some areas, electric light was charged at a lower rate than electric power (I have read - I am too young to have experienced this). This encouraged people to grow Christmas trees of bakelite adaptor pieces from their light fittings, some (and I have a couple of these) enabling a Y-connection of light bulb, and a bayonet-fitting take-off for power. No earth, and up to 5A only (including the bulbs on that circuit).
I wonder if any older readers here were on DC mains in their youth. Sometimes this came from a local mine, in such areas, and could be on a range of different voltages. I think I have read about domestic supplies taken (legitimately!) from tram and trolleybus systems too, but I could be imagining that.
My Mum grew up (1933-53) with gas lamps, candles upstairs, paraffin heaters, and a radio with an accumulator charged at the garage for valve heaters and presumably (expensive) dry batteries for grid bias and HT. She remembered the 'I have to tell you now that no such undertaking has been recieved' moment on that wireless.
On Monday my cousin and I were reminiscing about a cottage her great-aunts used to own (which we both stayed in at separate times). It was lit by oil lamps or candles, and any cooking had to be done over an open fire or on a calor gas stove. The toilet was an Elsa chemical toilet in a lean-to outside the house. Water came from a spring about 10 minutes’ walk up the hillside, fetched in enamel jugs. We didn’t wash very much when we stayed there!
The cottage is long gone (the land was bought for forestry development in the early 1970s) but I absolutely loved staying there.
I can remember visiting relatives in the outer islands in Orkney in the 60s and early 70s and hearing the "put-put-put" of the diesel generators that were used at night; I couldn't understand why the light switches didn't work during the day! I think it was the early 80s when all th islands were connected to the grid.
I can remember visiting relatives in the outer islands in Orkney in the 60s and early 70s and hearing the "put-put-put" of the diesel generators that were used at night; I couldn't understand why the light switches didn't work during the day! I think it was the early 80s when all th islands were connected to the grid.
While we are connected to the grid our island does have a backup generator, which sounds like a row of double decker buses. It can only store 3 days of fuel so if it has to be on for a prolonged period getting enough tankers on the ferry can be dicey.
Next, we move into stone hot water bottles... Rubber ones eventually perished and burst in the bed, with consequences that sometimes needed a lot of explaining: stone was a good option. They weren't really stone of course - just a crude form of china, I think. They kept warm for a long time, but if one rolled out of your bed and hit the floor in the middle of the night the noise would wake everyone in the house.
Only ever having encountered rubber hot water bottles (and those only when someone was sick), I was sorely confused when reading about a stone hot water bottle in Rumor Godden’s In this House of Brede.
I haven't used anything to warm the bed for donkeys years. In fact, I use a summer weight duvet all through winter. In the height of summer, I just use the duvet cover. I overheat in bed very easily.
I think winters are not as long and harsh as they used to be, and houses are better insulated. Even older ones have often had some insulation improvements.
I have also not needed anything for years, although this year I did need to have socks on, because my feet were cold.
On DC mains from 1938 to 1950; moved in 1950 to no electricity, gas mantles, battery radio, and outside (chemical) loo; moved again in 1955 to AC and indoor loo, bath and television.
A friend grew up as a farmer's daughter locally, and because the farm tenants lived closer to the road, they got electricity before the main farmhouse did. She remembers going down the hill to her friend's house to watch Circus Boy on their TV.
If the water was heated in a big built-in wash-day copper, the heat from the fire underneath warmed the rest of the body that was not in the water. Drying-off was still chilly, though, in the draughty stone-floored kitchen.
Comments
I have vague memories of gas lighting at aged relatives homes in both Kincardine (Fife) and Alloa. But other homes in both places, including my grandparents, had electricity and had done so for a while, so I think this was from choice/suspicion of new things. This was in the ‘60s . The village I grew up in, Kingskettle, still had gas streetlights on one back road - 2 of them- and someone who climbed a ladder to light them each night. They were replaced in the early ‘70s.
I recall many power cuts during the "Three Day Week" political crisis of 1973-4. One local shop however had not had its gas light fittings removed so was able to be illuminated while all others were in darkness.
Power strips come in handy.
Good point. Actually, our TV entertainment system comes close. Staying under 15 amps though.
What I do recall is only one warm room in the house - the one with an open fire. Everywhere else was cold, to be galloped through clutching a hot water bottle.
I remember our church camp in Central Idaho originally had a deiseal generator, but then the Lower Valley co-op put in electrical lines.
I was so grateful because I was wearing the wrong orthotics and my feet were aching.
My grandmother was still using one of those when she lived with us, in the 1960s.
My parents never had central heating, even in their next house ( 1970- 2001).
I now use a wheat bottle, heated in the microwave.
Yes. The house I was born in (in NE England) had one warmish room with an open coal fire (big black range). We used to have cold winters in the 40s and 50s when I was growing up and, often enough, there was frost on the inside of the bedroom windows.
Combine that with an outside toilet and my memories are of feeling cold from November to April. Yes, we had stone jar hot water bottles.
Do you know, I think they were.
When we moved in 1955 to a much warmer council house, (with a bath and an inside toilet too) the following winter was very cold. I half expected the Jack Frost patterns but they were a thing of the past. And, to be honest, not missed!
We moved in to a house in about 1980 that had previously been owned by an elderly gentleman who hadn't done much in the way of modification since not long after the war.
When we moved in, there was a back boiler behind the fireplace in the living room to heat water. There were old-style round-pin electric sockets, and a handful of paraffin lamps. No gas lamps, though.
In some areas, electric light was charged at a lower rate than electric power (I have read - I am too young to have experienced this). This encouraged people to grow Christmas trees of bakelite adaptor pieces from their light fittings, some (and I have a couple of these) enabling a Y-connection of light bulb, and a bayonet-fitting take-off for power. No earth, and up to 5A only (including the bulbs on that circuit).
I wonder if any older readers here were on DC mains in their youth. Sometimes this came from a local mine, in such areas, and could be on a range of different voltages. I think I have read about domestic supplies taken (legitimately!) from tram and trolleybus systems too, but I could be imagining that.
My Mum grew up (1933-53) with gas lamps, candles upstairs, paraffin heaters, and a radio with an accumulator charged at the garage for valve heaters and presumably (expensive) dry batteries for grid bias and HT. She remembered the 'I have to tell you now that no such undertaking has been recieved' moment on that wireless.
The cottage is long gone (the land was bought for forestry development in the early 1970s) but I absolutely loved staying there.
While we are connected to the grid our island does have a backup generator, which sounds like a row of double decker buses. It can only store 3 days of fuel so if it has to be on for a prolonged period getting enough tankers on the ferry can be dicey.
I think winters are not as long and harsh as they used to be, and houses are better insulated. Even older ones have often had some insulation improvements.
I have also not needed anything for years, although this year I did need to have socks on, because my feet were cold.