I will revert to some of the incidents in my earlier life. My earliest recollections of holidays apart from possibly an odd day at Blackpool and mother always being ill on a trip to Blackpool, I never knew why, of course I was very young then, but in 1923 we went on a week’s holiday to the Isle of Man, sailing from Fleetwood to Douglas on the SS Snaefell. We stayed with a Mrs Kaigin at Bucks Road, Douglas. Provisions had to be purchased and handed to the landlady who prepared them for us. That voyage was uneventful as was the return. In 1924 we went to Cleethorps in Lincolnshire, during that time mother would wear a slipper on one of her feet as she had had a very bad scalding. In those days all cooking was done on the coal fire or in the oven heated by coal or wood. This particular day the kettle on the fire had tipped over, scalding mum’s foot very badly. When I arrived home from school at midday, she was on the settee and my brother Fred, who happened to be on his day’s leave from the police force was attending to her. Today they would have plunged the foot into cold water, but this was not known then. For a long time she had a very large blister on her foot, hence the slipper. 1925 came and we again went to the Isle of Man to the same address, this time the voyage was different, Fred and Elsie were with us as they had been at Cleethorps. The ship was the SS Viking and was notorious for its lean. Nearly all the passengers were violently sea sick including me. Father was particularly bad and it took him the best part of the week to get over the sea sickness. It was rumoured that one lady had died. The crossing to IoM is noted for its tendency to be rough. As I said, the cooking was done on the fire and the grates were always black leaded and the fender and fire irons cleaned. The front door step about two square feet was also donkey stoned white once a week. The donkey stones one received from the rag and bone man in exchange for old rags. In the village sanitation was very primitive. WCs were virtually unknown and the privy was usually a little outhouse a few yards from the house; the scrubbing of the toilet boards was a weekly ritual. A large tin or bucket was in the centre and these were emptied weekly by a “drag” that came round the village with two men, and horse drawn. As it neared the vicinity of the house, a mad rush to close all doors and windows took place because of the odour from the cart. The contents of the cart were very often spread on farmer’s fields. It was no wonder disease was rampant. One of my schoolmates died of diptheria, which was common then, he was aged six. I can well remember the church bell tolling, which it used to in those days, known as the “passing bell”. Three for a man, five for a woman and eight for a child. I remarked to my mother as I was off school poorly, I wonder if it is Jimmy Riley and it turned out to be so. Scarlet fever was also common, which meant one had to go to isolation hospital for six weeks and their house fumigated. The hospital was Heath Charnock but has since closed as a hospital. Bathing was also another weekly occurrence. In the back kitchen, like many homes, we had what was called a “copper” with a little fire grate underneath. For washing days (Monday) and bath days (Friday), a fire would be lit under the copper which was filled with cold water and heated up. For bathing a tin bath was used and filled with water from the copper, then of course it had to be emptied. As a little boy I used to enjoy sitting by that fire. My mother would often get the fire going by transferring some of the coals from the kitchen fire. How well I remember the time we had hot water installed and a proper bath. The house of course was part of the property owned by the people who lived at Crooke Hall. That is where my father worked and the owner of Crooke Hall decided to install hot water and a bath. It was what was then called a back boiler and heated from the kitchen fire and a large cylinder to store hot water was in my bedroom. When the plumber had completed the installation and left, I noticed that there was water running in the fireplace. I told my mother so she said I better run up to Crooke and tell Dad. Fortunately I just caught the plumber who was up at the hall, so he had to come back and rectify his workmanship. Later on, we had a WC installed and the bath transferred from the back kitchen into what had been known as the “pantry” with a cold slab installed to keep things cool, no fridge those days. It was a transformation, a proper door was erected which one could lock and it became a private bathroom with hot water and toilet. We actually had one up on our adjoining neighbours at Kem Villas, the three houses belonging to the mill. They still had the old style lavs. A little door was the means of extracting the bucket into the yard for them and sometimes as a joke my friends and I would open the door and put nettles in to give them a little “tickle”. Those people eventually got WCs as more and more people did in the village until it finally became compulsory. We used to get up to all sorts of tricks. When my sister used to use the old style closet, I would sometimes throw sods at the door to make her jump. My mother would have a good laugh as she saw the funny side of things.
Continue to 15. The Arrival of Radio & Electricity