Talk Morgan Forums Community The Malvern Arms Second and Foremost

+1. I had a very nice childhood.

Absolutely...and you haven't lived until you've tried "Beef in a bag".
When I was a kid there was no hot water downstairs, and there was an electric "copper" next to the sink for heating water for washing clothes. At least we had a bathroom inside. That house didn't get central heating until the 80's, and then only one radiator upstairs in the bathroom. We didn't have a fridge until the 70's.

It was basically a one room existence and you stayed with the coal fire. I got dressed in bed in winter. The coal delivery was dropped on the road back then and without a father it was my job to come home from school, then barrow a ton of coal down the path, and then re-shovel into the coal house. That's why I admire steam railway firemen so much, because I know what shovelling just one ton of coal feels like.

In this instance, I am very grateful that I'm a Gen X and not a boomer.

It is incredible how much 'standard of living' improved in such a short time.

Central heating, double glazing, foreign summer holidays, three square meals a day, Dads old car with aircon...80's were tough!

Well, we managed three meals a day most of the time, but none of the other stuff.......

No, on toast... Monday Tea.... WONDERFUL!!

As a child of the 1950s so much has changed...
Even in the affluent south there were a number of occasions where childhood accidents and illnesses caused kids to disappear from school for extended periods, usually they ended up missing a year. Only one fatality I can remember, a kid got an infection swimming in the river, and died from bacterial meningitis. Another kid was injured in a car accident and missed a year at school.

Memories...
1952: Rented house/flat above a bookmakers. 1, Rock Street, Mansfield. No heating, outside toilet.
1956: Parents bought a 1939 build semi in Claygate Surrey. Cole/gas fires, immersion electric heater for hot water plus back boiler in the back room fireplace. All the memories described above resonate: walking to school, in blazer and short trousers in the big freeze of 1962/3., Ice on the inside of the windows, getting dressed in bed. No TV, just a radio.
1964: Parents had a Rayburn stove installed, partial central heating, but still cold. Also got a fridge and TV. Dad got a car.
1968: Coke stove replaced by a gas fire with gas back boiler for the central heating/hot water.
1974 moved out into various rented flats and houses after University.
1976: Bought a new semi in Wimborne with Caroline.

We survived, no snowflakes.

We moved to Devon in 1960 - Dad had taken on a bigger farm than our Sussex one in partnership with my Uncle Max.

There was no mains water when we moved in. There was a bore hole with a submersible pump. My mother flagged a fault with the wiring - apparently I used to howl when placed in the bath. They discovered a mains short on the submersible pump that was making the steel bath live. The bore-hole had insufficient capacity for the dairy unit (100 cows IIRC) so we had permission to fetch water from a standpipe in the next village. Dad and Uncle Max bought an ex-army 800gallon water bowser on a Bedford lorry chassis. It was Mum's job to drive the 4 mile round trip to fetch water. The lorry was filled with petrol at the pub in Bratton Clovely - a manual wind up petrol pump - as although not the cheapest petrol, it was on the route.

Electricity came from a generator until 1965 ish. There was a Lister generator set for the house that auto started (most of the time) when a switch was operated. Another generator ran the milking parlour which was 1/2 a mile up the road from the house.

Heating was from the kitchen Aga - fortunately our bedroom (shared with my brother and sister) was directly over the kitchen so although the windows were occasionally frosty, we weren't cold. The living room had a log fire which ran from fallen trees gathered from around the farm.

The winter of 1963 saw us snowed in for several weeks. My sister was born in the April - Mum was cross because the thaw came too soon and she missed a ride in a helicopter.

Whilst we were snowed in, the milk was stored in the water tanker until the roads cleared enough for a tractor and trailer to take our churns to the Ambrosia Dairy at Lifton. My uncle nearly crested a brow one day and slid all the way back down a hill - demolishing the coal shed on the only house for miles. The next day, they tried the Land-Rover. An 88" Series 1 will take 20 milk churns leaving just enough room for the driver - as long as some are lashed to the front bumper.

I remember leaving a lighted parafin heater under the car all night si that it would start in the morning...did this well into the early 70's
Nick

My first memories were of malay/singapore officers quarters so not really valid! ceiling fans and dripping humidity. However that did make the return to England after three years a double shock.

First officers quarters had a lounge fire with back boiler which warmed the single radiator on the upstairs landing and sometimes provided hot water for the bathroom and sink from a tiny storage tank. That was a cold nasty winter. At a guess very early 1970's.
Then my parents moved to a new build in Fleet which was in a different league. Carpet which was so much warmer on the feet, full central heating, single but well sealed glazing. Ohh the bliss.

When we first came back I do remember going up to Aberdeen for winter holiday and staying with Gran which had the outside toilet and no bath. One of the old beautiful granite terraces down by the river and docs. We used to visit the Bon Accord public baths where you were given your own little cubicle and asked to shout "more cold in number 6" etc until it was right. I swear they tried to boil you alive.