EARLY YEARS & LINEAGE
9987 Gaslight - Nana's House in South View
My grandmother lived in one of the houses at Bromborough Pool built by Prices for its workers. To be precise she lived in one of the better houses, designed for supervisors. We, of course, lived in one of the few built for its managers.
The most interesting aspect, however, was the fact that my grandmother's house was not modernised until the 1950s. Accordingly, it was a good example of the sort of housing that had existed in the 19th century.
In fact it had rather more room than the two up and two down which was then more usual, since it had three bedrooms upstairs -- which were not too different to modern bedrooms.
Downstairs it had the dining-room and the living room but -- as was common in those days -used as a front parlour and a back parlour. The front parlour, complete with piano, was only used when visitors called. The back parlour was where everything else happened. On the other hand, both these rooms were comparable with modern rooms.
The remaining room was the kitchen and this was - in one respect at least - very different. It was still dominated by a massive boiler in the corner, in which the clothes were washed - with a wood fire lit under it to heat the water.
Overall, there were two major practical differences in the way life was lived. The first was the fact that there was no bathroom, only a tin bath in front of the fire was available, Apart from a sink, with running cold water, in the kitchen there was no water on tap. Equally there was only one lavatory, and that was outside in the cold. In winter visits to this posed quite rigorous problems for the inhabitants of such houses.
The other factor was that there was only gas laid on. It was only in the 1950s modernisation that electricity was brought to the houses. This meant that everything was lit by gas light; which is totally different to electric light. Not least it was much less powerful, so the rooms were dimly lit, but it also gave a much softer, yellower light. Of course, it also meant that none of the modern electrical appliances could be used. Even the radio had to be run on batteries and I well remember massive battery which was used to provide the high voltage; for, in those days, all radios were still powered by thermionic valves.
Accepting its limitations, though, it was very comfortable house. I am sure my grandmother was very happy there. I used to go and see her every other day on my way home from school; something that doesn't happen in our modern age. My abiding memory was of the slight smell of mustiness. I suppose this came from the damp -- the piano actually crashed through the floor of the front parlour when the dry rot got the better of this! The other abiding memory was of the large quantities of white pepper my grandmother used; possibly because the lack of refrigeration caused the food to be tainted.
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