Britain’s Back to Backs

[OldAirmail]

The Birmingham Back to Backs

But Leeds still defied all opposition and continued to build them until the 1930s.

FASCINATING
I was prepared for tales of horror.

But then I kept seeing the genuine smiling faces of both adults and children, and that made me think...


My mother was born during the American Great Depression, and grew up in the 1930's in the South.

They had wood board floors, but some didn't.

As a little girl, she had;
NO electricity (night time lighting was an old kerosene lantern - when they could afford to buy the kerosene)
NO running water
NO indoor bathroom (yes, they used an outhouse)
NO heating of any kind other than the wood burning cook stove (which had to be taken outdoors in the summer)
NO phone.

One of these "Back to Backs" might have been an improvement.


No matter how bad you think you have it, some may have it worse.

[pete]

Not back to back - but silly prices in london for houses now

http://www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for ... 23198.html

[Fozzer]

My memory serves me well from those times in the 1930's, 1940's, and early 1950's.
Everything from Victorian times was crumbling to dust!

Mum, Dad, and I were evacuated to the countryside of Herefordshire in 1940 to escape from the Blitz of London where we lived for 5 years in a typical stone-built, double-cottage in the middle of nowhere, with no electricity, no tap water, (a nearby spring in a field), an outside shed for a toilet, (guess where the poo went!!) no nearby roads, no transport, no fuel for cooking etc, apart from wood, a long walk to school every day across fields to the nearest village, in all sorts of weather...
...but it always brings back happy memories for me, as a young explorer and tree-climber!

Most/all of the buildings in my Market Town of Hereford were remnants from the Georgian and Victorian times, and were falling apart with sagging roofs and walls held together with dry mortar.

I remember the buildings being slowly demolished amid clouds of dust to make way for the more modern buildings that exist today...
...but much of the old stuff can still be seen behind them!

In the early 1950's when I was an Electrician Apprentice, I spent much time wiring up remote country houses and villages, for the new-fangled electricity which was gradually appearing in remote places!

I have a very good memory of; "Olden Times", but a very poor memory of where I have left my keys, socks, etc, today!

Most of my old memories were very happy!

I spend many hours with my eyes closed, remembering olden times in places I have lived and visited.

Very relaxing!

Paul.... ...!

...now where did I leave my left sock?...(They are marked L and R).... ...!

I could write a book on my personal experiences from my Olden Times, long, long ago!.... ...!

[OldAirmail]

Not back to back - but silly prices in london for houses now

http://www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for ... 23198.html

Good luck to him. But I'm pretty sure that someone will come along and think that it's perfect for them.

[OldAirmail]

Rest easy, Paul.

Scientists have proven that the older you get, the greater your creativity gets. It is possible to loose something within arms reach.

That's an ability that younger people just haven't developed yet.

[H]

My mother was born during the American Great Depression, and grew up in the 1930's in the South.

My mom, the eldest in her family, was 95 as of March, which equates to a 1922 birth on Prince Edward Island. She was told she couldn't have children and her youngest sister had two before I supplied a surprise. Unfortunately, dementia has progressed to where I don't know if she even recognizes me as her son and she rarely speaks a word now. She has told me a little of her life early on but not a lot. Somewhat like Foz, I can remember things back to my infancy and it seems we had pumped in water to our cottage in Belfast, ME (I remember my mom washing dishes -- Lord, she wasn't quite 30! -- at the kitchen sink). I can relate to some of this in my own life, though, when we moved onto our NH farm when I was @ 3½...

They had wood board floors, but some didn't.

I believe our farm house was built around 1860 but we cut the section off where the horse carriage was originally garaged and put on a second porch with a more modern (for the time) board floor; the floors of the house were top-planed 2 x 8's but narrow planed boards were overlayed in the kitchen and all rooms were overlayed with linoleum.

As a little girl, she had;
NO electricity (night time lighting was an old kerosene lantern - when they could afford to buy the kerosene)

Our farm was certainly similar in its beginnings but had electrical when we arrived; there were single wire connections run through porcelain stand-offs to the barn. During blackouts, we did have the hurricane (kerosene) lamp for back-up. Many of the light switches were old-time rotary.

NO running water

That depended upon how fast I had to make it to the bathroom downstairs, to where my water flowed -- but there was originally a gravity fed well to the kitchen (we later pumped water up from the spring further down the hill).

NO indoor bathroom (yes, they used an outhouse)

For this matter, the farm on which my cousins lived, 10 miles away, had water pumped to the kithen but they relied on the outhouse -- attached by an enclosed walkway -- to relieve themselves. Its winter use is a very chilling memory.

NO heating of any kind other than the wood burning cook stove (which had to be taken outdoors in the summer)

Although a boiler and steam heat had been installed, there were some years when it wasn't working (later, after my parents' divorce and prior to her remarriage, Mom couldn't afford the heating oil) and we reverted to the former method. There was a chimney running up from the kitchen; my first baking (a spice cake) was in our wood range. A second chimney ran up from between the living room and downstairs bedroom and up between two of the upstair bedrooms; we had a large Franklin stove in the living room (there was a vent in the ceiling/floor for heat to rise into the bedroom over the living room) and a small one in the opposite side upstairs bedroom. In the winter we'd load the stoves just prior to going to bed and I'd stuff my pants under my pillow so they wouldn't be quite so cold in the morning. We began a fair amount of wood chopping by the start of autumn.

NO phone.

Phone -- what's that? Of this I am aware: neither of my parents had telephones when they were growing up. Neither had we any on the farm until my step-father moved in (when I was @16). Also, the former owners had left antennas on the roof but we didn't get our (b/w tube) Admiral television until I was @ 8; when it gave out we didn't have another until my step-father replaced it, then my aunt gave me an ancient 1940s vintage Westinghouse I got working well enough to use in my bedroom.

No matter how bad you think you have it, some may have it worse.

Believe it... just listen to the news.

[Fozzer]

My dear old Mum and Dad, born in 1900 and died in 1990, never owned a motor car or a telephone for the whole of their lives.

They used Motor Busses for transport and wrote letters and posted them for communication.

My first mode of transport apart from my bicycle was my first of many Motorcycles, purchased for me by my Dad in 1950 when I was 16 years old and obtained my Motorcycle Licence.

He enjoyed observing my Motorcycle experience so much that he bought a number of Motorcycles for himself, riding them from 1950 up until the late 1960's.

...but he never purchased a motor car...

I never had a telephone until the Internet (Freeserve) came into operation in 1995 with a dial-up connection via a telephone line, necessitating me to purchase a new-fangled Telephone to obtain the necessary Post Office installation and connection via copper wire!

60 years without a telephone! ... ...!

Mobile Phones:
My Granddaughter purchased one for me many years ago to allow be to call the vehicle Break-down Service in the event of me getting stranded on my Motorcycles.
After many years and many miles, I still haven't broken down...so the accursed Mobile Phone NEVER gets used! ... ...!

In my later years, I now find that electricity, gas, running water, and toilet plumbing to be very useful, as opposed to candles, paraffin lamps and outside loos!

Modern inventions!...for me!... ...!

Paul .... ...!

[bradshaw48]

That was really a harsh time for the state but it doesn’t matter because if you are satisfied with your life and you can find happiness in the smallest things then you will always remain happy.

[Fozzer]

That was really a harsh time for the state but it doesn’t matter because if you are satisfied with your life and you can find happiness in the smallest things then you will always remain happy.

I will be happy when its stops bl**dy raining and the sun comes out again in England!

When I was young, it never rained, and the Sun always shone.

Now that I am older it rains every day.

The Forecast is that it's going to rain continuously until 2049...

...then the Sun may come out again ...maybe ...perhaps ... ...!

If it had rained continuously between 1940 and 1945 the Huns may have stayed at home and the Blitz would never have happened?

Paul....always watching the weather... ...!

[H]

If it had rained continuously between 1940 and 1945 the Huns may have stayed at home and the Blitz would never have happened.

But the Blitz did happen and the Huns were providing much of the rain!

[Fozzer]

If it had rained continuously between 1940 and 1945 the Huns may have stayed at home and the Blitz would never have happened.

But the Blitz did happen and the Huns were providing much of the rain!

:cry:

After each London Air Raid had ceased I used to exit from our earth-covered Anderson Air Raid Shelter in the back garden and wander around the local streets collecting all sorts of shrapnel from exploding aerial ordinance.
We kept it in a large bowl for many years until it mysteriously disappeared...which was a shame!

I remember that Shelter even today!

Paul....Memories .... ...!

[H]

After each London Air Raid had ceased I used to exit from our earth-covered Anderson Air Raid Shelter in the back garden and wander around the local streets collecting all sorts of shrapnel from exploding aerial ordinance.
We kept it in a large bowl for many years until it mysteriously disappeared...which was a shame!
I remember that Shelter even today!

I worked at a specialized furniture factory and a couple of the older workers were post WWII-era German immigrants; I sometimes called one of them 'bomb-catcher'; he'd told me that, while a member of the Nazi youth group, he and friends would be finding and crawling over unexploded Allied bombs. He also commented, referring to how the U.S. social attitudes had deteriorated since he'd immigrated, that the U.S. now needed "a Hitler -- just a little one," he indicated with a small space between index and thumb. My response was that, "The problem with a little Hitler is that he becomes a big one" (although I should have further clarified: "no matter how short he is").