Cold houses in the past…

my mother always felt the cold and I always remember the winter of 1962/63. We lived in an army quarter on a base in Germany. The house had a basement which contained a huge efficient coal fired central heating boiler that my father only had to tend once a day.

It was a revelation. the weather was much colder in Germany than the UK, yet we all kept as warm as toast. My mother vowed that she was never ever going to live again in a house without central heating. My father left the amy when we retunrd to the UK and my parents bought their own home. My mother had the central heating installers in the house before we even moved in.

Warm air central heating had a poor reputation because far too often builders used air heaters and fans that were too small for the job and with too few vents. It was a cheap way of instaallingheating. Our first house had warm air central heating and we loved it. It had a powerful heater and fan, vents, sometimes multiple vents in every room and a mechanical air circulation system that ensured the air circulated around the house properly. It is the best system we have ever had.

I can, only too well, remember being cold as a child. Central Heating had not even been heard off amongst people I knew. Usually, main or only living room would have a small coal fire, so much heat of that disappeared up the chimney. Had to be almost on top it to get any warmth.

Ice inside windows was the norm. Getting dressed each morning was carried out UNDER the bedclothes (which were always blankets - duvets had yet to arrive). Chilblains were far too common.

this was the 1940's and 50's. Even when we moved to our wonderful council house in 1951, there was only the facility for a fire in the Lounge (as we called it then). Nothing in bedrooms or bathroom or kitchen.

My parents NEVER had CH, they died in 1984 and 1991. When I got married in 1964, we lived in a Victorian end-of-terrace in East london, no CH, but did have gas fires both in 'lounge' and living room (off tiny kitchenette). We had astrong fan heater in our bedroom, but in the cold winter months I would take my clothes downstairs to the living room and dress in front of the gas fire there.

First CH we had was when we moved to a new-build in 1972. Sadly this was not very effective as builders had used a warm-air system, with grills high up in each room. Never really worked, and I do know that all those houses have since had it changed to normal rads.

So, when we moved from there in 1976 to a modernised Edwardian house was the first time I experienced proper CH. It was wonderful - BUT windows were all single=glazed so we lost so much heat through them and due to the high ceilings.

I now live in my wonderful 1980's flat, and can keep myself warm, including breathing warm air whilst indoors all the time.

I have a good friend who married a wealthy man and lived a pleasant life. She was a loving and indulgent mother.
Only once, in my presence, did I hear her snap at one of her children, who complained about the temperature in their toasty warm house.
" Cold" she shreiked " you have no idea what a cold house feels like!"
And she was right.

I share all the memories of winters growing up in the 50s and 60s. Like most we only had a fire in the living room and I remember revising for my mock O levels in the kitchen. I put the gas oven on a low heat and sat with my feet in the oven.

In the 1940s and 50s my parents and I often spent Christmas at an Uncle and Aunts large farmhouse in Gloucesthire. The aga stove (coke) heated the kitchen and provided hot water and there was a log fire in a sitting room which was lit late afternoon. The huge bedrooms and huge bathroom were unheated. I remember ice inside the bedroom windows, huge eiderdowns and hot water bottles. In the morning we dressed in thick clothes My mother made lots of Aran sweaters. Anyone remember liberty bodices? I don't remember anyone complaining!

When I was five we moved from an isolated farm cottage with no electricity or bathroom to a three bedroom, modern for its time, semi with both electricity and indoor bathroom . Still part of a farm it was on the edge of an East London town.

I don’t think my parents noticed the cold for the first winter, they were so pleased with their new (with an all important rent book for security) home.

No heating upstairs made for very cold bedrooms and the beautiful frost patterns on draughty metal framed windows. So much condensation too to be mopped when there was no ice. There was a stove with a back boiler in the kitchen and an open fire in the living room which was lit most evenings. My bed had many blankets and a huge, thick, heavy eiderdown which kept me warm at night. Morning washing was rudimentary, I dressed in the kitchen, clothes were left there overnight, my school shoes warm next to the stove.

As time went on the farm became a factory site. My dad had to change and sometimes worked night shifts. On cold nights my mum and I slept on a bed settee which was usually the province of visitors in the living room, the fire was kept alight, it was bliss. I remember being cold but not usually miserable. Everyone we knew was the same.

The worst time was the cold from winter freezing fog, the buses stopped, school stayed open so I walked the three miles with a friend. It was cold, miserable and scary, sometimes we struggled to know where we were, when he could my dad came to meet us,

My dad hated working inside. When he was offered more farm work we moved in 1968 to another, quite large, farm cottage., still no central heating but by then there were electric heaters in the bedrooms. It all felt so much better.

When first married we lived in a tiny terrace, an outside toilet, no bath and just one open fire. It was fine, we were happy there and sad to leave when we were re-housed in a flat in a tower block with both a bathroom and heating. In 1970 we moved areas, my parents too, and had new build council houses with blown air central heating. It seemed wonderful.

This thread has made me think about expectations It was enough to have a home. We needed or indeed wanted little. I am grateful for the well insulated warm home I share with Mr C today while thinking we both expect and have come to rely on such a lot more now.

Parents house had a fireplace in living room and bedroom above. The only time bedroom fire was lit was if anyone was ill and that was rarely. No shortage of coal either as father was a miner. Marrying in 60s house only had 1 fire, no double glazing. 70s brought gas central heating but no double glazing until early 90s. Electric heaters were used to boost heat in bedroom. Both son's houses seem to be like hothouses even though one was built in the 50s other 2019. Mine 2009 yet never seems as warm. Think it must be an ageing thing.

Iwtwab12bow

Icicles on the inside of the windows, chilblains the whole winter, freezing fog,coming home from school and not being able to see the road because of the fog ,long socks and sensible school shoes, frozen milk on the doorstep . Oh yes,we were cold.

I was milk monitor at primary school and we were supposed to stick straws through the foil tops of the little bottles.

The milk used to freeze and rise up out of the bottles in winter.

Deedaa

I was always cold in the winter. No heating in the bathroom or bedrooms, although my mother would bring a paraffin stove upstairs if I was ill. I used to have my clothes in bed with me so they would be warm when I put them on. There was a coal fire downstairs, but it always seemed to take hours to get going, and school seemed to be just as cold when you got there. I spent all winter with red mottled legs because I was always too close to the fire.

My mother said my bedroom should be warm because the chimney from the sitting room went up behind the wall near my bed.
It wasn't, there was still ice on the inside of the windows.
She used to call me nesh.

petra

This is the boat we were living on in the winter of 1981/82.
We put a log burner in after that winter 😂

That was a very cold winter with ice and snow. There were icicles hanging off our gutters about a foot long!
I fell over walking to school; I was pregnant at the time.

This is the boat we were living on in the winter of 1981/82.
We put a log burner in after that winter 😂

On top of a cold house, I had Reynauds disease, as did my grandmother and now my DD. It’s improved with age for some reason, but all the blood drained out of my fingers, especially later on, when going into the freezer to take something out.

I remember 1962 and wearing fingerless gloves in the office, operating a switchboard.

I remember the ice patterns on the windows but mum tried very hard to keep the house warm. She was brought up in India and probably found it very cold. The last two houses we had, had a back boiler in one and a Rayburn in the other which heated the water and the room above. We had a gas fire in the living room. Mum always made sure we were kept warm. When I had a gas fire in my room she always lit it before I got up or the paraffin heater in the previous house. Similarly a paraffin heater in the bathroom. I remember once getting too close with my quilted nylon housecoat and it started to melt! I was lucky!

The go to ointment for my chilblains was called Snowfire or something similar.
It made the skin burn which helped with the circulation.
I suffered terribly with them.
It was hard to know which was worse, the pain or the dreadful itching.
As soon as I left work and didn’t have to be out in the freezing cold weather they stopped and I have never had them since but I still remember how awful they were.

We were married in1962 and our first home was a flat in a large Victorian house up 62 steps, something which became very significant when carrying coal upstairs for the only fire and then water when the water main in the road froze solid. DH had just started teaching and much ingenuity was involved in exercising the teenage boys as all normal activity - rugby and rowing - was impossible. Keeping clean became a tremendous effort and we were glad of offers of baths from people who were less frozen. It was some seven weeks before normal life resumed.

The first house I remember had no heating and then we moved when I was about 4 to a house with central heating downstairs. I remember the excitement and no more temperamental coal fires. A few years later, the heating was extended to upstairs, it was bliss. Then in 1981, I married a farmer & moved into an un centrally heated farmhouse. It was just in time for the worst winter imaginable, with temperatures down to -20. It was dreadful! We had a very temperamental Rayburn in the kitchen and a couple of log fires. Our bed had an electric blanket, two duvets and a thick candlewick bedspread. It was all rather hard going!! I'm pleased to say we still live in the house but have full central heating and a log burner in the kitchen and underfloor heating in the garden room. However, we only have the heating on for a few hours in the evening but the logburner is going all day and the kitchen is the hub of the house.

M0nica

Does no one remember chilblains. I only ever had red swollen knuckles, but for others it was blisters and weeping sores.

For those who do not remember feeling cold, I sometimes wonder whether this was because we knew of no alternative. In winter we were cold. Fullstop.

However, I do think some people feel cold more than others and this isbuilt in. Ny mther and her sister, who grew up close to poverty both felt the cold and were always huddling around fires to keep warm. I can remember at school, some girls running around in school shirt sleeves, when I too was running around and wearing vest, shirt and sweater.

I remember chilblains very well. I had them on my feet and they used to bleed when I was made to do PE in my bare feet. Wearing plimsoles didn’t make any difference. Mother used to put chilblain ointment on them, but I can’t remember what it was called. Like some of you, we had draft excluders, heavy curtains over doors, and one fire in the kitchen-living room, which had a back boiler for hot water. The fire would get hot enough to boil the water in the pipes, we could hear it gurgling! We had a tall, Alladin paraffin heater which was put in the bathroom on bath night. Flannelette sheets. Blankets and eiderdowns, often with dad’s army coat over the top. Hot water bottles at bed time - we wrapped our night clothes around them and popped them into the bed in advance of bed time. A skim of ice on the bedside glass of water, and ice on the inside of bedroom windows. Ah yes, I remember it well.

Life in our house revolved around the Parkray stove in the winter. It was in the living room and the only source of heat. We dressed and undressed in front of the Parkray and the dining table was in front of it for meals and homework. I suffered constantly from earache and a bottle of oil was kept warm on top of the stove to be poured down my ears at regular intervals (mostly this just blocked them up). There was much misery on Mondays when a huge clothes horse was placed all around the Parkray with the steaming wet washing cutting off all the heat.

Heavens, we had a downstairs bathroom and I used to run for it, we did have an electric heater in there. But it was a quick wash etc, run back up to bedroom probably picking up underwear that had been put in front of the Rayburn to warm up.
Mottled legs were around!
Could not use the sitting room as too cold though there was an electric fire in there.
Of an evening being in same room watching TV playing cards it was a quick dash to make a cuppa, boil water for hot water bottles, grab a snack.
Didn't do me any harm

Does no one remember chilblains. I only ever had red swollen knuckles, but for others it was blisters and weeping sores.

For those who do not remember feeling cold, I sometimes wonder whether this was because we knew of no alternative. In winter we were cold. Fullstop.

However, I do think some people feel cold more than others and this isbuilt in. Ny mther and her sister, who grew up close to poverty both felt the cold and were always huddling around fires to keep warm. I can remember at school, some girls running around in school shirt sleeves, when I too was running around and wearing vest, shirt and sweater.

I was always cold in the winter. No heating in the bathroom or bedrooms, although my mother would bring a paraffin stove upstairs if I was ill. I used to have my clothes in bed with me so they would be warm when I put them on. There was a coal fire downstairs, but it always seemed to take hours to get going, and school seemed to be just as cold when you got there. I spent all winter with red mottled legs because I was always too close to the fire.

My childhood house had coal fires in front and living room; front room only lit on high days and holidays. A bit later we had a two bar electric fire in each room. In ny teens my dad decorated the middle room for me to use for homework and listening to my music. I had a Calor Gas fire in there. Never had central heating or heating in bedrooms or bathroom. When I moved into a flat I had a two bar electric fire. When I got married hubby moved into the flat with me. He froze as his house had central heating. His parents sold the house to us a few months later as they wanted to move back 'home'.

I grew up in the 60s and 70s. the house we grew up in had ice on the windows in winter, frozen milk on the doorstep, used to be in the kitchen having meals and the lino on the floor would flap up and down.
in the 70s mum started buying bri nylon sheets from Brentford Nylons as she thought they would be warmer. they were ok but first night i had one of my toe nails catch on the sheet and ripped straight off ouch

I had a cold childhood, but you just got on with it because there was no other way. One of my jobs was on a hill farm in a tied cottage. We had a flock of sheep to look after and horses and dogs, so we had to get out in the morning to feed them and milk the house cow. We had a solid fuel Rayburn, no double glazing, if it snowed, we had to dig out the sheep. The farmer would be hauled over the coals now, how they looked after us

I remember the Winter of 1962/63.
When the sea froze and one of the coldest winters on record. I am 71'next month.

My father was a miner at the time so our family were entitled to a free coal allowance from the NCB. National Cold Board. I think it was given out on a monthly.basus.

However although the downstairs of our was toastie. The upstairs bedroom were cold and we had fan heaters and electric blankets. Plus Whitney woollen blankets and thick eiderdowns

Winter clohing involved lots of woollen knitted stuff, garberdines and duffle coats . Woolly hats,gloves,scarves and socks.

Remeber the rubber buttons on Libery Bodies being diffucult to fasten