'Frozen up' in winter before double glazing and central heating

Lead pipes

The problem of burst pipes was lessened (but not eliminated) by pipes tending to be made of lead, a flexible metal. However lead is poisonous. So where water was left in the pipes for any length of time, it not only tasted bad but was actually poisonous. Fortunately water was seldom left in pipes for long enough to cause significant hazards, although there were cases of lead poisoning.

Gradually lead pipes were replaced by copper or plastic pipes and run wherever possible inside rather than outside buildings, and much more lagging was introduced.

Peter Johnson

How to keep the outside flush lavatory working

In our Victorian terraces we had an outside lavatory that would freeze solid in cold weather. The cast iron tank high up on the wall would be a lump of ice. So my father would turn off the water inside the house last thing at night as the temperature dripped, then flush the bowl. This way the tank was empty of water and could not freeze up. Then he would put lots of salt into the bowl and put an old rug over it. If one of the family needed to go in the night there were chamber pots under beds.

Peter Johnson

Keeping warm in bed

The two smallest of us children slept between mum and dad to keep warm and the remaining three all slept in one bed. We resorted to putting house bricks on the fire until they changed to a light colour when hot, then lifting them off onto a shovel. They were then wrapped in an old piece of blanket and put into our beds.

There was a fireplace in the front bedroom but the coal ration didn't stretch to that being used! The two other bedrooms had no fireplaces so we relied on bottles, bricks and body warmth. Some people had rubber hot water bottle from before the war, these were no longer available during the war, so when they wore out it was back to the old house brick and stone hot water bottle.

Peter Johnson

Making tea with no running water

This page explains why coal was rationed, gives dates and the amount of the coal ration and people's reactions to it.

On the first day of unexpectedly being frozen up, we hadn't saved water from the previous day. There was of course no running water. So we made our breakfast pot of tea from the water in last night's hot water bottles. It didn't taste nice but it was better than nothing.

Ethna Comerford

Ice patterns on windows - admired from the warmth of bed

On cold winter-mornings I used to love to look at the swirly patterns of ice on the inside of the window panes. My children can't believe that I used to sleep in such conditions. I am glad that they sleep in their warm double-glazed modern bedrooms, but part of me is sad that they will never experience the thrill of seeing those unique icy-patterns for themselves first thing in the morning.

Lacy ice patterns on a bedroom window before central heating

David Harriman

Anything damp that touched icy windows stuck to them

The temperature often went below freezing, so that if you touched a window, it froze the damp on your finger and made it stick to the glass. You had to huff on it with your breath to loosen your finger, and you had to do it gently! A neighbour had let her net curtains get damp and they stuck to the glass. When she tried to remove them, she could tell that they would tear. So they remained stuck to the window until the thaw came.

Richard Ouston

Sanding the pavement outside the house

It was common practice to expect every household to be responsible for the area of pavement outside their own house - sadly no longer the case. So everybody would save the ash from their coal fires to spread onto the pavement to stop people slipping over.

Peter Johnson

Locating leaks and getting a plumber

Once the pipes began to thaw, the search for leaks began. This was not always straightforward because water can seep along surfaces and just drip from its lowest point. The worst fear was that the drips were above a ceiling because if allowed to continue they could bring the ceiling down.

Unfortunately it was seldom quick to get a plumber to come out to the house because so many houses were calling on plumbers' services. While waiting for a plumber's arrival, buckets were placed to collect the water. If it was a bad leak, emptying and replacing the buckets was continuous work. Where sinks were frozen up, the emptying had to be outside the house - a cold job.

When a plumber did arrive, he dried the outside of the pipe - normally in the loft - and went along it with a blowlamp or a hot water bottle. This encouraged more ice inside the pipe to melt, making it seep out more quickly so identifying where the problem lay. He then replaced that portion of pipe-work.

Peter Johnson