Heating the house with coal fires in the 1940s and 50s

Open fires looked lovely, with multicoloured flames dancing above the coal, and glowing caves between the pieces of coal, but they were draughty, dirty, messy, inefficient, and a lot of work. In the 1940s when I was a child, they were effectively the only form of heating in main living areas.

clearing up the fire from the night before

The fire had to be remade each morning which was the coldest time of the day. The first task was to remove the old ash from beneath the fire grate (a cast iron grid or basket which held the coal). The grate was raised up to allow air in and to let the ashes fall into a pan, and this pan had to be taken out and emptied into the dustbin, a process which created clouds of dust. Although most of the ashes did collect in the pan, the space below still needed to be swept out, which made more dust.

Starting the fire

Laying a new fire was a skill which most people in the 1940s knew and understood because it was so common-place. You had to start with a few sheets of crumpled newspaper which would burn easily. Next came something like dry twigs or thin shavings of wood, known as 'kindling', stacked loosely up round the paper so that enough air would be drawn though it by the heat of the flame. Wood shavings or dry twigs were often just bi-products of gardening or carpentry, and sticks of firewood could be bought quite cheaply at the local ironmongers. After the kindling came the coal.

The paper was lit in several places with a match or a lighted wax taper.

Sometimes the fire needed help to start. This could be because the wind down the chimney was in the wrong direction, or there was not enough or too much of it, or there was not enough kindling, or the coal was damp, or it was a poor batch of coal, or for any one of a thousand and one other reasons. My father used to put an asbestos sheet with a handle on it across the front of the fireplace, to increase the draught through the grate, which helped the fire to 'draw'. This was very effective, and quite exciting. You could hear the fire roaring away behind the asbestos sheet, although, surprisingly, when the sheet was taken away, the fire seemed quite tame.

On one occasion the asbestos sheet had been left outside, and had got wet. So when it was placed in front of the fire, and the fire got going well, the sheet got hot, the moisture in it vaporised, and the whole sheet exploded, sending pieces of asbestos across the room. (In those days, asbestos was not considered dangerous: indeed, my father made his own rawlplugs by mixing asbestos wool with plaster powder.)

Sometimes, instead of the asbestos sheet, my father used a newspaper held carefully across the fireplace, but this was a bit risky, because as the draught increased the newspaper could be sucked in and up the chimney.

dealing with the chimney catching fire

An occasion for excitement was when the chimney caught fire. When the coal was burned, soot (carbon) was deposited in the chimney. If the fire was too hot, and too much soot had built up, the soot itself could catch fire. This led to acrid grey smoke belching from the chimney, and such fires could be difficult to control, because the heat of the soot fire increased the draught in the chimney, drawing in more air from below, feeding the fire further. A roaring could be heard in the chimney breast, and the brickwork got hot. Meanwhile clumps of red hot soot could be falling down the chimney into the fireplace, and possibly falling out into the room.

Almost the worst part of a chimney catching fire was that all the neighbours could see what was going on. It was frowned upon to allow one's chimney to catch fire because it was considered to show a lack of proper management. Householders should, it was felt, have had the chimney swept before it got that bad.

It was difficult to put out chimney fires. Pouring water onto the fire didn't help, because the fire was in the chimney, not in the grate: pouring water on only succeeded in filling the room with smoke and ash. The best method was to starve the fire of oxygen, by blocking off the fireplace completely with the asbestos (or metal) sheet. If the fire could not be controlled, the fire brigade had to be called, which the neighbourhood enjoyed, but which was deeply embarrassing for the victim.

coal rationing

The Second World War caused many commodities, including coal, to be rationed, and rationing continued for some years after the war ended. The coal ration was set at two and a half tons per household per year, that is fifty hundredweight. My grandmother complained bitterly. She had always had two hundredweight a fortnight. She needed two hundredweight (100kg) a fortnight. Although she only had a fire in winter, she had always had two hundredweight of coal delivered every fortnight throughout the year for budgeting purposes. Couldn't they see - she argued - that that came to fifty-two hundredweight a year? Fifty hundredweight was no good to her. What would she do for the odd fortnight? She kept this up, and eventually 'they' relented, and she continued to have her two hundredweight a fortnight.

coal deliveries and storing the coal

The coalman came round the streets from the coal yard much as he had done in my parents' and grandparents' time. He arrived by horse and cart, and carried the huge sacks of coal through the house, into the kitchen. Then he emptied them into the cupboard under the stairs - which was where coal was stored in the terraced houses of the Huxley Estate where I was living.

I especially remember one occasion at my grandmother's in the late 1940s when the coalman came. As he carried the coal through the hall, he knocked the gas lamp that was hanging down. The pipe broke off at ceiling level, and gas was pouring into the room. A piece of soap was quickly found, and pushed into the hole to plug the leak, which I considered to be very clever.

This website Join me in the 1900s is also known as Join me in the 1900's and is © Pat Cryer.

The 1940s and 1950s are also written as the 1940's and 1950's