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Memories of the 1930's come flooding back to Jack Hill who lived on The Gables Farm with his parents.
Bathing facilities comprised one dumpy galvanised bath which was stored in the coalhouse until required and then brought in and laid on the rug by the fire. This always presented problems for me as the metal side nearest the fire always became too hot for bare skin. I have no information about Dad or the girls who were all allowed to bathe after bedtime. I was often bathed in front of visitors whoever happened to be around the kitchen. This was accepted as the norm even though I was extremely shy by nature and would normally run a mile to avoid social contact.
Bedtime involved undressing in the kitchen and then entering the main house by going through the matchboard sided porch with gaps at ground level where boards had rotted. One passed through the heavy external door into a small hall then through an icy cold parlour up the stairs and eventually to a bedroom. These rooms all had fireplaces but seldom if ever saw the flicker of flame.
The one in my parents' room had a gas fire that would be lit for a short while to take the chill off the room. My bed for the early years was in this room next to my parents' very saggy bed. I then moved into the end room where Connie slept but I often crept back into my parents' room.
Connie's room had a small dormer window, which allowed some sunshine to penetrate and was reasonably warm having two sides adjoining other rooms.
Madge's room was at the far end of the house with three outside walls and therefore was really cold. The ceiling had no insulation above the plaster and the floor was of concrete with oilcloth covering. The concrete was not reinforced, and laid on a shuttering of reeds spanning between the joists.
Lighting upstairs, apart from my parents' room where there was a small gas lamp, consisted simply of candles in a tin holder. I have seen as many as twelve candles scattered around Madge's room and this probably helped to keep her warm when reading in bed.
The parlour was seldom used in the winter months as the fireplace was ill designed for the size of room and had a basket grate set well back into the brick surround, and so any heat just managed to reach a few feet into the room. Originally the room had been L-shaped and included the lobby by the back door, but when I was about eight years old a stud partition was constructed to form the lobby to reduce the draughts.
This was a slight fiasco as the timber used for building it was not sufficiently dried and so exploded with an attack of dry rot, and had to be taken down and rebuilt. I recall that the external walls were rubble stone up to dado height and single brick thickness above so it really isn't surprising that the room was cold. The flooring was of blue Staffordshire bricks with a covering of oilcloth and a few runner mats extending between the doors
The staircase was situated in the front entrance hall, and had shiny painted walls, usually a dark green, which were excellent for finger painting in the condensation that regularly formed.
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