Up 'till 1958 we only had gas lighting (& only downstairs), wrote John Shrubb, so during the winter l went to bed aided by my Mum with a candle held in an enamel-coated holder.

The sole source of heat for the house was the coal fire in the living room, so an hour or so before going to bed, a hot water bottle was placed in the bed, making sure your pyjamas were near it, as the bedroom was very cold.

In fact, l can recall waking up some mornings to find frost on the inside of the bedroom windows ! l could not see outside unless l breathed on the glass to melt the frost!

As we only had an outside loo, if you got 'took short' during the night, the 'po' ( goes-under) was there, under the bed on the cold lino.

Instead of today's duvet, our 1950's bedding consisted of :-
flannelette top & bottom sheets in white (washed by boiling in coal-fired copper.)
3 blankets in winter, 1 in summer.
Eiderdown.
Bedspread.

Under all this heavy bedding was a horse-hair mattress, and under this was an iron bedstead with coil springs, the bed ends being in polished wood.

Due to having no electricity, our 'wireless' was powered by an 'accumulator', (a wet battery). This lasted one week, then required re-charging. This meant a visit to the village hardware shop, managed by a Miss Collins. Each week Mum took me there to drop off the flat accumulator, & collect our fully recharged one, ready for when Dad got home from work, to re-connect the wires.

The hardware shop had a smell of paraffin, they sold pink & blue; it was piped into the shop. Miss Collins would sit on an old 112 lb. bag of cement that had turned solid, while she waited for the gallon measure to fill, then decant it into your can.

From the age of about 10 my jobs included ;-
Chopping firewood & stacking it in coalhouse.
Taking out coal fire ashes each morning & return with firewood.
Fill coal scuttle.
Fill Flora Viceroy oil heater with paraffin.
Fetch paraffin from hardware shop as required, often 2 gallons / week.
Fetch daily paper & Mum's cigarettes every morning from paper shop.
Take my dog for an hour's walk, before & after school.
Feed the dog & change her water.
Friday, after school ;- Go to the grocers opposite for the weekly order, take it all home & help put it all away.

Saturday morning was spent going to Farnham to collect the fresh meat for Sunday's roast dinner, & post 1958, pay 7/6d T.V. rental dues per week. lt was an H.M.V. 14 inch screen ! (monochrome of course ! ) only 2 channels then, BBC & ITV.

For all these 'chores', plus some l may have forgotten, l was given 1/6d. per week (7 1/2 p.). l never felt hard done by, there were no days off, always a 7 days/ week service, & l didn't need reminding to do any of these jobs.

Another daily task was to 'lay the table', which meant ;-
Remove the vase of fresh cut flowers & table runner from the dining table (which l have inherited now), then place the Irish linen tablecloth on the table, followed by the place mats, cutlery & silver cruet, bread board & butter dish.

After evening dinner, Mum would wash up, Dad would dry, & l would put the tea tray on the table with cups & saucers, tea spoons, milk jug & sugar bowl. The teapot was placed on the scullery table ready for the first pot of tea of the day. lt was all a set routine !

After breakfast l would clear the table, put everything away, & replace the runner & vase. On getting home from school during winter l had to light the coal fire to attempt to get the room warm ready for Mum getting home from work, & the evening in the armchair.

On windy evenings the fire would 'blow back', filling the living room with smoke ! So l would place the fireguard in front of the fire, then place a sheet of broadsheet newspaper on the fireguard, leaving a gap at the bottom so air could get under the fire, hoping it would 'draw' & get burning, so the heat & draught would take the smoke up the chimney.

Summer Sunday mornings were spent mowing the lawn with a Qualcast 'push' lawnmower, no motor mowers for me!

When Mum made new curtains, it was my job to turn the handle of the Singer sewing machine; l also turned the handle of the 'MANGLE' on wash day, it was clamped to the side of the stone sink.

At spring-clean time l was detailed to 'beat' the rug from the living room. lt was hung over the washing line & l had to 'beat' it with a carpet beater (hand held) until no more dust came out of it.

ln 1958 we were connected to the mains electricity supply, but the only appliances Mum & Dad got was a mains wireless & TV, so life was no easier for my parents. Mum was old fashioned & would not have the labour-saving 'goodies' that were in the shops then; her ways were best!

My 1/6d would buy a 'Matchbox' toy, but that meant ALL the 1/6d. was gone, and nothing left for a few sweets ! l would buy a Matchbox toy every 2 weeks, and then l could afford a few sweets (4 fruit salads or black jacks for 1d.) & a Beano or Dandy comic for 2d.

John Shrubb, 2002