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The following is a description by Ken Allan who lived in the Bakery 1945-51.
Lighting Lighting in the village was primitive to say the least, when we first arrived in March 1945. Public lighting consisted of one hurricane lamp on the fenceline inside the garden of the house with the washing on the line in the attached photo. The owner of the house was responsible for the lighting and maintenance of the lamp (the washing line is attached to the pole holding the lamp). When the war finished this was changed to an Aladdin mantel lamp with a glass funnel and enclosed in the glass case which is just visible. This was the meeting place after dark in the winter months (after dark meaning 4.30 pm.) and we used to play beneath it's light until meal time.
There were three main lighting sources for houses, the most primitive was the humble candle which was mainly used when you went to bed. When we first moved into the bakery a Hurricane lamp was hung from the ceiling in the kitchen, these didn't throw out much light and dad purchased an Aladdin mantel lamp which was a bit better, at least you could see across the room if you hung it from the ceiling and could read a book if you set it on the table. It was also used in the shop and the bakery. The only problem with these lamps was the fact you had to keep the wick trimmed or you would burn the mantel out.
The best lamp was a Tilley mantle lamp, this required pressurizing the fuel bowl by pumping air into the bowl, not only did it throw out a white light compared to the Aladdin but also gave off a certain amount of heat, it too could be stood on the table or hung from the ceiling. All of the above were fuelled by paraffin; the Tilley lamp requiring the mantel to be pre-heated with mentholated spirits before pressuring. There was no such thing as reading in bed.
Heating The main heating source for houses was the cooking range, heat from the range only heated the kitchen and this was why people lived their life's in the kitchen area. A chore at the end of the week was to clean out the fire box of the range and to polish the whole range with stove blackening.
Open fire places were also in use but used sparingly because of the lack of suitable fuel to burn. Most burnt wood; coal only being available to businesses such as bakeries. The shop was always reasonably warm because of the heat from the bakery oven.
Water The primary source of water for those houses with a slate or tiled roof was the water butt, this was a wooden barrel that held about 50 gallons and was set on a timber base against the wall to enable water to drain into through a down pipe from the roof when it rained. Most houses had at least two of these, some had larger capacity butts. Those people who had a thatched roof obtained their water from the village pump.
Another source were wells, the bakery was fortunate in that it had one in the back garden, so too did the Star & Garter and Middle farm. Most house properties were too small for a well to have been dug. |
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Utilities (part 1) |
