The increased energy bills that we are experiencing of late is catastrophic for many consumers, particularly for business. Even the most modest sized companies are finding their energy costs going up by a million pounds or more.
Even though I have my own ideas about our manufacturing and the ownership of our energy companies, as ever in my ramblings I am avoiding expressing any of my political opinions. Indeed, I’m happy to leave these arguments to people better equipped to give an educated solution. All I can offer is how we consumed energy when I was a lad.
An appliance-free lifestyle
There was no central heating; the thought of heating a room that we didn’t occupy was unthinkable. There were no washing machines or dryers. Instead, we had a poss-tub, mangle and outside washing line or clothes horse for drying round the fire in wet weather. (The clothes horse and a blanket were great for makeshift tents).
We had no dishwashers, fridges, freezers, hair dryers, hair curlers or straighteners or another variant for curling after the hair has been straightened. Hair removal was done very carefully by a piece of sharpened steel. No leaf blowers, powered lawn mowers and edge or hedge trimmers (if we had a garden it was full of vegetables or chickens). No televisions, computers, laptops or game consoles.
Batteries were rarely used and then only in a torch to find our way to the outside lav – that’s if we were lucky enough to be able to find the torch and for it to have any power in the battery or a bulb that hadn’t been broken by constantly bashing it to encourage a battery to bulb connection.
There were no power tools either. A knackler (handyman) would have a brace and half a dozen rusty bits (drills) a hammer, screwdriver, hand saw and a bag of mixed nails and screws, often re-claimed from previous jobs.
No combined shower screen and window steam cleaner, no massage chairs with combined foot baths; in fact, baths were a tin variety on a Friday night in front of the open coal fire.
Heating water: forward planning required
Both houses I lived in during my first seven years had one cold tap, so water heating for washing was an organised event, sometimes by heating the water on the range fire that had a small water tank on one side of the open coal fire and a small oven on the other.
If more water was required, such as for the highlight of the week (Friday bath night), then we heated the water in a ‘set pot’ – a galvanised portable boiler holding about ten gallons of water. This had a gas burner underneath with a flexible rubber hose that had to be pushed on to a gas tap that was usually situated at the side of the open fire so it could also double up as a gas poker fire lighter.
There was little to stop anyone turning on the tap at an inappropriate time, which meant the rubber hose needed trimming down occasionally because of the regular pushing on and off the gas tap. With the hose being a constant trip hazard when in use, what could possibly go wrong?! If things did go wrong and a calming cup of tea (no coffee in those days) was required, then the water for this would be boiled in a pan or kettle on the cooker – usually gas but electric cookers were also available – and this of course was used for cooking the main meal.
The propriety of ceiling lights, the importance of sticks
There was one electric socket downstairs used for the wireless (radio) and one socket upstairs that I can’t remember ever being used for anything. We had electric lights in each room; only one mind. They had a large brown Bakelite switch and a light drop to each room. Bedroom ceiling light drops were not positioned in the centre of the room as most are now. Vanity was a great consideration, so ceiling drops were in line with the centre of the window, but close enough to it not to cast a shadow of people undressing on the curtains that could be seen from outside. Even shadows had to show good taste and propriety.
All doors were, and should still be, hinged in a way to shield the room for as long as possible when someone is entering. This is to give anyone in the room a chance to stop doing it, or hopefully a chance to put it away before the door is fully opened. This is one reason why household doors are usually positioned in one corner.
The first shower I saw was in the gym at Colne Valley High School when I was 11 years old. We didn’t have a shower in the home I lived in until I was 41 years old and we didn’t have a telephone until I was 34.
There were no carpets so no need for a vacuum cleaner. The stone or timber floors were covered with lino (linoleum) and/or rugs, usually home-made rag-rugs made by threading short strips of rags into an oblong piece of canvas. Skilled rag-rug makers could create very fancy designs. I remember my mum making one with the image of Father Christmas with a bag of presents flung over his shoulder. Rugs were cleaned by taking them outside and beating seven bells out of ‘em with a carpet beater or a stout stick. Sticks had a much more important role in years gone by.
An indoor bathroom and hot water on tap: the height of luxury
Our home from when I was seven years old was a council house in Golcar and we thought it was the height of luxury. Indoor bathroom, toilet and ‘coil oil’ (a small room to store coal). We had potentially constant hot water in the kitchen and bathroom. However, ‘constant’ was never a reality. There was a lever in the mouth of the main fireplace that allowed heat to be directed past a back boiler which, by thermal mysteries and magic, in turn heated the water in a water cylinder in the bedroom directly above the fire, and, as if by further magic, this cylinder was situated inside a cylinder cupboard.
If the fire was not lit then we could use the immersion heater, which was an electric element in the cylinder. Anyone wanting to heat water in this way had to put a request to a parental authority in triplicate a week in advance, and if anyone left the heater on longer than it took to melt the ice then there was hell to pay. If we left it switched on long enough to actually boil the water, then someone was in solitary confinement for a fotnit with a bucket of cold water, a sponge and one block of carbolic soap.
I am aware that many people will be struggling and suffering and have nothing to fall back on. But I hope that as I and other people from my generation describe our experiences, we can perhaps see that things are not always as bad as they first appear and begin to feel that we will manage to survive.
