Visitors
Few working class families ever had visitors who came to
stay except when there was a wedding or a funeral. When they did arrive they
were given the better bedroom, and were expected to wash themselves in the
bedroom, using a wash-basin and jug. In some houses these utensils stood on a
marble-topped wash-stand, known locally as a “wash-hand-stand.” Poorer families borrowed a jug and basin from a
neighbour. In a soap-dish was a piece an inch thick, cut with a knife from a 3d
bar of “best soap.” A boy was once sent
to a grocer’s shop in the village, and said to the shopkeeper, “mi Mam sez, con shay ev the money back on
this bar o’ soap, cuz er viziters dint cum?”
A male visitor
would be provided with a shaving mug filled with hot water, and a small piece
of the same “best-soap,” in the receptacle at the top of the mug. He would
also be lent a strop to sharpen his hollow-ground razor, known as a “cut-throat.”
The Front Room
This part of the dwelling was used only occasionally.
Villagers always liked to have something in reserve, and distinguished between “working things,” and “best things.” This applied to “working clothes,” and “best clothes;” “working boots,” and “best boots;” “ordinary pots,” and “the best pots;” “the house,” and “the front room.”
The room was set aside for festive occasions, especially
Christmas, Easter, the Wakes, weddings and baptisms. Relatives gathered
sorrowfully round the coffin in the room when there was a death in the family.
When visitors came, they were entertained in the front room. The only exception
to this rule was on a wet washday, when the “house”
was festooned with damp clothing, and the family had to take refuge in the
better room.
A typical front room had a small black iron fireplace,
with a cupboard on one side, and a shelf on the other. In the middle of the
room was a deal table covered with a table-cloth, and the best oil-lamp
standing on it. One lady, describing the home of her childhood, said, “mi Dad’s grandfather clock and best woodin
cheer wor in theer, which ‘im an’ Uncle Sam carried from Segruf or sumweer. As
this got to Sileby, somebody shouted out, ‘ay, eent yo gorra watch?”
The room might contain an old couch donated by some other
villager, “yo con ev it fer nowt, ef
yer’ll cum an gerrit.” Poorer people were proud to possess a couch covered
with woven black horse-hair, even if the stuffing was bursting out in places. A
well worn couch could be uncomfortable, because the stiff projecting
horse-hairs pricked the skin through thin clothing.
The bare floor-boards were covered here and there with
home-made pegged rugs.
The Living-Room
The back room of a “two
up and two down” cottage was the living-room, but was always called “the house.” Here the family lived,
cooked, ate their meals and washed themselves. There was no unnecessary
furniture in the room, because a large family occupied much of the space. For
example: “In the centre was a
scrubbed-top table, which on special occasions was covered with a green cloth.
There were seeral wooden chairs; father had one with a high back, and curved
arms, and mother’s chair had the legs out short to assist her when nursing the
babies, and was called ;the low chair.’ Also a small side-table.” This seems to have been a typical living-room,
as “theer wornt room fer owt else when
way wor all in it.” On one was a frame with a verse printed in silver
letters on black paper:
“A Sabbath well spent, brings a week of
content
And peace with the gains of the morrow.
But a Sabbath profaned, what else may be
gained,
Is a certain forerunner of sorrow.”
Bedrooms
The upper rooms were even more sparsely furnished,
containing a bed and a chest of drawers.
The bedstead, painted yellow; with a wood-grain, and “a knob on each corner,” was bought from
a second-hand shop, or inherited from some poor deceased relative. Many people
slept on straw palliasse, “as hard as a
board,” and often the residing place of troublesome parasites which had
prodigious leaping powers. “When thi
burnt thi owd straw bed, yo ed to stand clear, or ywd bi covered wi flays.” “way
uster tek ar dug ter bed wi us ter kep us warm. Ay wor full o’ flays, but as
way ed as many as ay ed, it dint marra.”
There was a wardrobe. Clothes hung from nails at the back
of the door. Best hats were kept in a tin box under the bed.
One family, “weer
the gels wor wukin” and a little money was available, tried to persuade
their father to have some “lino” on
his bedroom floor, but he preferred the bare boards, stating that “lino” was “cowd t’the fate.”
The Fireplace
Victorian home
life seemed to be centred on the black iron fireplace, in which a fire burned
summer and winter. It warmed “the house,” cooked the food, heated water
and aired the clothes.
When cooking, saucepans were placed on the
grate
and tins or earthenware utensils in the oven ‚.
Food was placed on the hob ƒ
to keep warm. When cooking in the oven, the poker was used to move the coals to
the left side, so that maximum heat might be obtained. This was effective for
stewing and roasting, but as there was not an even distribution of heat, it was
difficult to cook pastries in quantity. In Sileby they used to say that mince
pies which were furthest away from the fire came out of the oven “white-faced.”
Rice puddings would boil over, and salt was then sprinkled on the bottom of the
oven to clean it.
On the right side of the fire was the boiler „, which was filled with
water from a bucket, or a large jug, after raising the lid. The hot water was
drawn off by a polished brass tap. Few houses used the boiler for this purpose,
because the interior became rusty, and red-brown water which came out of the
tap was not fit for household use. The boiler was generally used for drying
sticks to light the fire, but when the fire was burning well, the boiler became
so hot, the sticks began to smoulder, and filled the house with smoke and
fumes. Under both the oven and the
boiler were spaces for hot ashes to increase the heat, and when the fireplace
was being cleaned, the cold ashes were raked out by removing the two plates …. To control the smoke,
there was a metal dust-preventer †
between the grate and the chimney, which could be adjusted backwards and
forwards.
Black-lead
The ironwork of
the fireplace was polished with pumbago, a form of graphite, commonly known as
black-lead. A knob of black-lead could be bought for ½d from a grocer or
ironmonger. It was crushed, then mixed with water or some other fluid, until a
thin black paste was obtained. This was then applied to the fireplace with a
brush. It dried almost immediately, leaving the surface dull, but when polished
vigorously with a special curved brush, the ironwork shone like a black mirrow.
Friday was “black-leadin’ day.” Many houses had a steel fender, which
was rubbed regularly every week with emery-paper to give it a gleaming finish.
Pitch
The bricks at the
back of the fireplace ‡
were painted with pitch obtained from the Sileby Gas House. Most people gave
the bricks a polished appearance by the use of black-lead.
Red Roddle
The bricks of the
hearth ˆ
were scrubbed, then painted with red roddle. The idea probably originated at
the brickyard, as this substance was used there for staining bricks during
their manufacture. It was also employed for marking sheep. Roddle could be
purchased from an ironmonger by the place, and looked like a lump of rough red
chalk. After crushing, it was mixed in a bucket by hand, until, up to the
elbow, “yo wor all uver roddle.” The hearth was painted with the red
fluid, which dried giving a clean but dull powdery surface to the bricks. Red
roddle was used also to paint doorsteps and windowsills.
Lighting
Before 1900, most of the smaller houses in the village
were not supplied with gas. The “house”
was illuminated at night by a candle, or an oil lamp. Although candles were
cheap at 3d per dozen, some of the poor villagers made their own from string
and mutton fat. “Muttin canduls” were
not very satisfactory, as they spluttered, and burnt quickly and unevenly. Many
houses had two lamps. The best one had a polished reflector. In Sileby, it was
the practice to drop a moth ball into the oil to make the lamp burn brighter.
Furniture Prices
New bedroom furniture in 1890, as illustrated
here, cost £6.5.0. Beds were sold separately. A full sized bedstead cost 10s
6d, and a wool bed to fit, was also 10s 6d. A new straw palliasse was priced at
9s 6d in Leicester. A kitchen table cost 7s 6d, cane chairs 2s 6d each, and
Windsor chairs, 2s 9d. When these prices are compared with a weekly wage of
15s, it is seen that furniture was dear from the view of the labouring man, and
he had to put his home together the best way he could. Some people never had a
piece of new furniture as long as they lived.
(the writing in italics is the way Sileby people talk)
All information came from the magazine 'Bygone Sileby'.
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