A 1930s Childhood E-Book

Colin G. Maggs

• Herausgeber: The History Press
• Kategorie: Sachliteratur, Reportagen, Biografien
• Sprache: Englisch

Seitenzahl: 226

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2022

Beschreibung

Do you remember collecting birds' eggs and cigarette cards? Or the first appearances of wrapped sweets like Mars and Milky Way? The 1930s was a time of great progress, as engines took over from horses, and electric light from gas and oil. In the background, change was everywhere, with the Mallard speed record, the abdication of the King, and the increasing spectre of the impending Second World War. It was a time of home cooking, and day-trip holidays, when families kept chickens and children played with bows and arrows. This delightfully nostalgic book will take you right back to a different age, recalling what life was like for those growing up in the 1930s.

Leseprobe

First published 2022

The History Press

97 St George’s Place, Cheltenham,

Gloucestershire, GL50 3QB

www.thehistorypress.co.uk

© Colin G. Maggs, 2022

Cover illustration © Mirrorpix

The right of Colin G. Maggs to be identified as the Author of this work has been asserted in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without the permission in writing from the Publishers.

British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data.

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.

ISBN 978 0 7509 9984 7

Typesetting and origination by The History Press

Printed and bound in Great Britain by TJ Books Limited, Padstow, Cornwall.

eBook converted by Geethik Technologies

CONTENTS

Introduction

Acknowledgements

1 Home Life

2 Games and Hobbies

3 Food, Drink and Sweets

4 School Life

5 Town and Country

6 Holidays

7 Transport

8 The Onset of the Second World War

Memorable Events in the 1930s

Sitting on Grandad’s knee. (Courtesy of Stephen Dodds)

INTRODUCTION

The 1930s! What an exciting decade in which a child could grow up! The world really was becoming modern: internal combustion-powered vehicles were superseding horse transport; open-top buses and trams, comparable to the outside of a stage coach, were being replaced with covered tops. Cars were of the saloon type for year-round use, rather than the earlier open variety which could only be used in good weather. Air travel was even possible. Streamlining was all the rage: it made sense for rail, road and air travel, but to create a modern appearance, it was also applied to household articles and, similarly, modern architecture displayed smooth, uncluttered lines.

The decade marked the heyday of the steam locomotive because, later, due to the Second World War, there would be little development in the forties, while in the fifties the change would be made to electric or diesel–electric propulsion.

In those ten years, life in the home changed. To be up to date, you lit your home by electricity, not gas or oil. Plastic in the form of Bakelite was being used to make various objects. It was a time when many new homes were built, creating suburbs around cities, and many people, with the help of building societies, became homeowners. It was the wage-earner’s ambition to provide a home for his family, probably semi-detached and preferably with a garage, for they might even be able to afford a car on hire purchase. The thirties’ building boom saw the norm of a semi-detached house with a front garden being the favoured design, rather than the terraced houses which had been preferred earlier in the century, with just a garden at the rear. Towns were expanding so much that villages on their perimeter were absorbed as suburbs.

At the start of the decade, radios were rare, but by its end the majority of households owned one. Methods of heating were beginning to change. Most homes had coal fires, but gas and electric fires, although more expensive, were useful in spring and autumn when you only needed heat in the evening. Coal fires meant that there was always the risk of smog (smoky fog) on still days when there was no wind to disperse the smoke.

Although horse transport was dying out, it was still very much used in the countryside for carrying people in traps, and for many jobs on the farm. The standard of living was improving and many more people could afford a week’s holiday.

The effects of the First World War were still visible: it was common to see wounded servicemen who were blind or lacking limbs since artificial limbs were not readily available; other ex-servicemen were tucked away out of sight because they were suffering mental health problems. There was a preponderance of spinsters and widows because of the number of men who had been killed in the war and were therefore not available to be husbands.

Although from 1933 it was very obvious that Nazi Germany was stealing territory from other countries, we in Great Britain were very reluctant to go to war; the memories and results of the previous one, with its great loss of lives, being all too recent.

Britain was still very imperialist – the empire, which was coloured pink on the map, covered a quarter of the world and we liked to think that we were a very important power. Due to the expense, few people travelled abroad and so adopted an insular attitude believing that other countries did things in strange, odd and perhaps foolish ways.

People living in the 1930s lived more content lives because they had lower expectations: they were satisfied with a roof, warmth and food. Other things such as a radio or a visit to the cinema were viewed as luxuries and very much a bonus. People sang and whistled in the streets because they were happy; they did it for joy, not cash.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

Thanks are due to Dr Sheila Barry, Margaret and Alan Dudeney, Phill Martin, Newton Tainsh and Shean Whyte for help received, and especial thanks to Colin Roberts for checking and improving the text. Thanks to Stephen Dodds for supplementary photographs.

Dressing in your best. (Courtesy of Stephen Dodds)

One

HOME LIFE

In the thirties, there was more disparity than you see today. For most people, money was very tight, with an average wage of about £2 10s. With care, you had just about enough to live on, but certainly none to spare for luxuries. Should you be out of work and ‘on the dole’, you received £1 7s 3d a week plus 2s for each child. Children’s pocket money was about a penny a week – enough to buy a packet of sweets, but you needed 2d for a bar of chocolate and 6d to 1s for most Dinky Toys. It might have been possible to get a job delivering either morning or evening papers, helping a local tradesman, or singing in a church choir.

The standard of housing varied greatly. In England and Wales, many factory workers lived in terrace housing, while those in Scotland occupied tenements. These were usually close to the place of employment so offered the advantage of easy and quick travel, but the disadvantage of being close to the noise, dirt and smoke of the factories.

Terrace and tenement families dreamed of owning a semi-detached house, perhaps even with a garage. Modern homes had metal window frames which closed firmly and did not rattle like sash windows, and some of the really up-to-date bay windows actually had curved glass on the corners. The railways encouraged house building, realising that it would mean an increase in season ticket sales and also income from the carriage of coal and goods needed by those relocating. The Metropolitan Railway’s publicity department created the term ‘Metro-land’ to encourage the building of housing estates alongside its line, which extended as far as Verney Junction in Buckinghamshire, 50½ miles from London. The Southern Railway encouraged house building by electrifying many of its lines in the London area. It produced posters bearing such phrases as ‘Live in Kent and be Content’ and ‘Live in Surrey, Free from Worry’.

Certainly, those who could afford a home in the suburbs enjoyed better living conditions, but had the disadvantage of spending time and money commuting. Travel could be by foot, cycle, bus, tram, trolleybus or train, but not usually by car, as if you could afford a car, it was kept for leisure use at weekends or evenings, not to travel to and from work. As an economy, a significant proportion of private car drivers did not tax their car for the first quarter of the year because the weather in those three months did not generally encourage outings.

The author and his mother in 1933 outside his home which was built the previous year. Sited on a bend, the plot of land was wedge-shaped so, unlike most houses of the era, the two main downstairs rooms and the two main bedrooms were at the front, the small bedroom being at the rear. (G.T. Maggs)

If you ran short of money, you might have used a pawn shop, perhaps taking your best suit along on Monday, being loaned a sum of money for it and then redeeming it the following Saturday. Although this was not really a wise way to live because the pawnbroker had to earn a living and you had to pay for the loan, it was the only way some could manage.

If space was at a premium, families might have had to cook, eat and live in one room, but, if possible, these three activities were carried out in three separate rooms. The lounge might have been kept for special occasions, such as Christmas and funerals.

The dining room was furnished with a table, often with an expanding leaf for when entertaining visitors; upright chairs, perhaps with arms for use by Mother and Father; and a sideboard in which to keep the best china and glasses, with drawers for tablecloths, napkins and special cutlery, again for when entertaining visitors. When set for a meal, a table in that era was considered quite naked without a covering. On the sideboard was a fruit bowl and a stand of place mats. If the radio was not kept in the dining room, there might have been a loudspeaker connected to the wireless. The fireplace had a set of fire irons and a clock stood on the mantelpiece.

The sitting room had a suite of settee and two matching chairs, all in fabric or leather, the settee perhaps being capable of being adapted as a bed for overnight visitors. There would also have been a few easy chairs and a table or two on which to put books and flowers. The room may also have had a bureau, bookcase, coal scuttle, fire-iron stand, and a clock on the mantelpiece. For the family’s entertainment it may well have contained a piano, radio and gramophone. Ashtrays were plentiful around the house as most people smoked and, as there were no air fresheners, windows had to be opened to get rid of the smell.

There were two types of gramophone: a mechanical one, which was fairly portable, but you would not want to carry it very far. This was operated by a hand-wound motor and relied on a horn to magnify the sound, but later models had the horn distorted and cunningly placed below the turntable. Other gramophones were electric. Both types used metal needles which were supposed to be replaced for each record. The hand-operated gramophones could also use very economical wooden needles which could be sharpened using a special tool. All gramophones used records which had to be played at 78 revolutions per minute. If an electric motor had been lubricated with thick grease, it took some time for it to warm up before the table rotated at the correct speed. The records were brittle and it was all too easy to crack one if it were dropped or sat on. Should you be able to afford it, the real luxury of the decade was the radiogram, which combined a wireless and gramophone; it even allowed you to pile several records on at a time and would actually change them automatically!

Whether in the dining room or front room, there was quite likely to be a piano. In this decade, more children learnt to play a piano than do today. Apart from being a useful accomplishment and entertainment for the child, the skill could be very useful for making friends or perhaps even getting a job in the future. If two people of equal ability were seeking a teaching post, the one who could play the piano was more likely to be offered it. Falling out of use during the era, because of the much more adaptable gramophone, was the pianola. At first glance it appeared to be an ordinary upright piano, but wider from back to front. A roll of music could be purchased which consisted of a card with punched holes. You inserted this into the pianola and pressed a pedal to generate wind which blew through those holes and sounded particular piano keys, making it look as if you were playing the piano without moving your hands. In addition to playing these rolls, it could be played like an ordinary piano.

As there was only one radio in the house, everyone in the family would gather round to listen to the popular programmes and had to listen when it was actually being broadcast for there was no domestic means of recording a programme in those days. The BBC was held in awe as it only used speakers who enunciated the Queen’s English. It broadcast entertainment and news programmes and was really the only means of telling the correct time. If you missed the time signal, you would ask someone, ‘Please can you tell me the correct wireless time?’ The term ‘wireless’ was used because, unlike the telephone, it did not need to be connected by wire.

At the very end of the decade, television became available, but only to those living in the London area and at a price out of the reach of many. The picture quality was quite poor and grainy.

The kitchen had a sink, usually only one draining board, a plate rack and cooker. This would probably be gas, this being cheaper than electricity. If you could afford it, rather than using matches to light the gas, you would have a gas pistol. Some people, especially those living in the country, cooked from an oven beside the fire. Others used a Primus stove which was started by methylated spirits evaporating paraffin, which was then put under pressure, and it looked and acted much as a town-gas ring.

There would be cupboards for storing crockery and food, while for wash days there would be a galvanised tub with gas ring below. When the laundry had boiled sufficiently and was deemed clean, it was lifted out with wooden tongs. Products such as Persil, Rinso and Oxydol could be used to help the cleansing process, while another useful product was Eezall, advertised as ‘What granny used to use’. It was manufactured just a few miles from my home and one day, out on a cycle ride, I spotted the factory where it was made and was surprised to see how small the building was – not much larger than a domestic garage, which was surprising given Eezall was a nationwide brand.

A mangle was used to squeeze as much water out of the laundry as possible before it was hung on the line. A child was often asked to turn the mangle while an adult fed the laundry between the rollers and it was always tempting to try to turn the handle quickly and see if you could squeeze the adult’s hands. The two rollers were kept together by a strong spring; before use, the spring was screwed down and after use it was relaxed. Scotland had wash houses owned by the local council.

The washing line was outside and, if it was long and slack, was supported by a clothes prop in the shape of a long, forked stick. If it rained, you may have had a framework which could be lowered by pulleys from the kitchen ceiling and then hoisted up for the washing to dry indoors, but this created a damp odour. An alternative was to place the washing in front of the fire on a clothes-horse, taking great care that the garments did not go up in flames. As everyone did their washing on Monday, it was acknowledged that no one was antisocial enough to light a bonfire in the garden that day. As smokeless zones were still far in the future, bonfires were an enjoyable means of disposing of your garden waste and any other combustible rubbish. There were many possibilities: you could pretend you were firing a railway locomotive or use it to bake potatoes, and, in winter, keep warm all at the same time.

When the washing was dry, it had to be ironed and many homes still used flat irons, either heated beside a coal fire or on a gas ring. You needed at least two irons: one to use while the other was getting hot; but very modern homes owned an electric iron, often plugged into an overhead light. If you didn’t have much money, you would do all the washing and ironing yourself, but the more affluent sent the larger items, such as sheets, to the laundry, which would collect them by van, wash and iron them, and then deliver them home.

There seemed to be many more flies about in those days and fly-papers were a common sight, especially in kitchens. Often suspended from a light in the ceiling, the strips of paper were about 2 feet in length and 4 inches wide, covered with an arsenic-based adhesive substance that flies stuck to. This led to detective stories being written at the time about people extracting the chemical from the fly-papers to use as poison.

Mice could be another health hazard and were dealt with by a back-break trap. This consisted of a wooden platform, U-shaped piece of strong wire and a spring. The bait, usually a piece of cheese, was placed at one end of the trap and, when the mouse took the cheese, this triggered the spring which caused the strong metal wire to snap down and break the mouse’s back, killing it immediately.

The main downstairs rooms were heated by open coal fires which generally burnt all day and, when unattended, had a wire fireguard in front to prevent sparks flying out and setting the room alight. If you lived in the country, you might well have had a wood fire because you could get your children to collect the fuel free of charge. The act of sawing the branches into short lengths was another means of generating heat to keep warm. House-proud women liked to black lead the grate so that it looked gleaming and well cared for.

The dining room fire might have had a back-boiler for heating water, or an oven on one side of the fire. There may have been cast-iron discs on each side of the fire which could be swung over in front of it to heat a kettle or saucepan, all of which were very economical.

Maintaining a coal fire was time-consuming. It had to be set up, often by older children, with a base of crumpled newspaper, kindling wood and coal, the ashes having been removed without spreading too much dust in the air.

A match would set the newspaper alight and hopefully set the wood on fire, which in turn would ignite the coal. If the fire did not draw, a very exciting solution was available to grown-ups, but was far too dangerous for children to try. A broadsheet newspaper would be held tightly across the fireplace, as close to the fire as possible. This would restrict the flow of air so that it could only come from beneath the fire and pass through to make the coal burn well. The danger was that, sooner or later, the newspaper would go up in flames and had to be thrust on to the fire quickly before it caught the house alight. This method of getting a fire going was great fun to watch, but a less exciting way was to use a pair of bellows.

Unless a fire was needed for hot water (for example, in spring and autumn when it may only have been chilly in the evening), rather than go to the trouble of lighting a fire and then having to clean it, re-lay it and make it smart by polishing with black lead, some households used a gas or electric fire.

A coal fire was splendid for toasting crumpets or bread on the end of a toasting fork, which perhaps you made at senior school from wire bent to form a handle and three prongs. It was always fun watching someone else do the toasting because there was always an excellent chance that the slice of bread would fall off into the fire and go up in flames – always good for a laugh.

Coal or wood fires generated soot, which was combustible. This meant that about once a year there would be the excitement of the sweep’s visit. It was essential to have your chimneys swept because a chimney fire would lead to a fine because it could easily lead to the whole house catching fire. A chimney fire was very obvious because it created so much black smoke and an obnoxious smell.

The sweep, covered in soot, arrived on his bike and was actually invited by your mother to come into her nice clean rooms – if you were as dirty as he was, you would have been ordered to have a bath!

Mother had already made preparations and pushed the furniture back from the fireplace and covered it with an old sheet. The sweep poked a brush up the chimney, adding more rods as it ascended and then you rushed outside to see it appear through the chimney pot. As the sweep steadily withdrew the brushes, soot would fall down the chimney and into his sack, not into the room. Mum would be anxious that, as the sweep left, he didn’t rub the sack or dirty clothes against her nice clean paintwork or wallpaper.

The sweep would then ask whether we wanted the soot – it was useful for preventing slugs from eating plants. I noticed that the sweep had white teeth and was told that this was because he cleaned his teeth with soot. I just couldn’t understand how cleaning with something black could make them white any more than I could understand how putting a blue bag in with the white washing could make it whiter.

Modern houses, or modernised homes, had electric light, but many older houses still had gas lights. Homes in the country with no mains electricity or gas supply relied on oil or paraffin lights, but if you were really up to date, you would use gas from a cylinder. Some paraffin lamps were of the Tilley variety which vapourised the paraffin and gave a brighter light than was given by a wick burning paraffin. The railway companies were great users of Tilley lamps.

Many houses which had electricity at this time were only wired for lighting and if you needed current for any other purpose, say an electric iron or vacuum cleaner, you took out a bulb and plugged in the appliance. My mother powered her Hoover via the light above my bed.

One evening, I was just drifting off to sleep when there was a thump on my pillow. I was scared stiff, believing that a criminal had punched the pillow beside my head. For safety, I dived deep down under the bedclothes.

After a few moments, realising that I was still alive, I warily felt around with my hand and touched something round and warm – the light bulb had not been securely inserted and had fallen from its fitting!

Homes which had electric sockets had the round-pin type, with either two or three holes. Often, schools did not have wall sockets and many teachers plugged a kettle into the electric light to boil their water for a cup of tea.

Homes which did not have electricity, or could not afford a vacuum cleaner, used a carpet sweeper. This was an appliance with a long handle and, when pushed, round brushes picked up dirt and rubbish from the floor and stored it before you emptied it into the dustbin.

Homes with a mains gas supply usually had a brass tap in each room. From this, a flexible metal tube with rubber at each end could be used to connect the tap to whatever gas appliance was required at that particular moment: perhaps a fire, a ring for boiling a kettle, or a gas poker for getting the coal fire started. It was only much later that it was standard practice for the appliance to be permanently fixed in place.

The gas used then was not North Sea gas but a product made at the gas works. Coal was heated in retorts but not given any oxygen, so the gas given off by the coal did not burn but was stored in a gas holder. This was a very large iron cylinder with its lower end sealed by water so it could rise and fall as consumers used its contents. After the gas had been extracted from the coal, coke, a smokeless fuel, remained. Early in the twentieth century, all towns and even some large villages had their own gas works, but in the thirties, economies were made by larger gas companies taking over and closing the smaller ones, laying connecting mains and thus creating a grid over the whole country.

Children might have had their own bedroom, but often had to share with siblings and, in a large family, some even had to sleep head to tail in order to pack more into a bed. Beds consisted of sheets and blankets and needed to be made up daily. Duvets were uncommon and viewed as the curious invention of foreigners. Bedrooms were not generally heated. Sometimes when my mother came in to wake me up in winter, she would say that Jack Frost had come in the night to paint the windows and I found the condensation on the panes frosted over with delightful patterns – a joy missed in a centrally heated home. Nevertheless, main bedrooms often had a fireplace so that if necessary – perhaps during illness or unduly cold weather – a coal fire could be lit. Electric blankets had not been invented, but if you could afford it, a hot-water bottle warmed at least part of the bed.

As sheets and blankets were tucked under the mattress, a hot-water bottle, particularly the earthenware rather than rubber variety, often got moved to one side of the bed and dragged the bedclothes off. Should you not have been able to afford a proper hot-water bottle, a warmed brick or even a stone served the same purpose. Warming pans had generally gone out of fashion.

Water bottles were not without their problems; on more than one occasion I found in the morning that I had a blister on my leg caused by the heat, while at other times I would wake up with a wet bed caused by a leaking seal, or perished rubber, unless it had been caused by another problem. Some people knitted woolly covers for their hot-water bottles, but I found that they prevented the spread of heat over the whole bed and preferred not to use them. Their surface was not so nice to the feel as rubber because it had a rough, rather than smooth, texture. Bed-socks were a mixed blessing because, although at first they kept your feet warm, I found the following morning that they had come off during the night.

Bedrooms generally contained a bed, wardrobe and set of drawers. If a house lacked a bathroom, or a family was large and the bathroom needed to be supplemented, a bedroom might have had a washstand: a table with a marble top on which stood a large basin and ewer containing water – cold, unless you had a maid who could bring you some hot. You were thus able to wash in your bedroom.

Girls’ toy household equipment. (Hamley’s 1937 catalogue)