Who remembers getting up and lighting the fire on a cold winters morning.
First clear the ashes and be careful taking them outside if it was windy or you got a face full.
Screw up the day befores Star into tight balls (broadsheet then) and save a double page to help draw the fire.
Place the paper in the grate and lay the sticks (we always had a boxfull ready) over the paper.
Place the coal on top, only small lumps first till it got going then larger ones.
Pull out the damper (always covered in soot) to help draw the flames and light the paper.
Then the tricky bit came, we used to stretch the double sheet across the front of the fire place sometimes aided with the coal shovel propped in front leaving just a small gap at the bottom to allow the air to be sucked in which fanned the flames.
Many a time has the draw of air been so great that the paper was sucked into the flames igniting it and would have to be quickly snatched back and screwed up before the lot went up.

Once the coal had been lovingly coaxed to flame it was time to wash off as your hands would be as black as the chimney breast.

Next was to get the kettle on and sit with a hot cup of tea admiring the flames dancing and the sticks crackling and that lovely glow of warmth that hit you in the face because you were sitting about 6 inches from it.

MAGIC !!!!

did you ever do toast on an open fire. no taste to beat it

still do "light the fire" round here
just seems to be us thats never had a real fire (just storage heaters :( )

Funny how the world goes around. I was first allowed to light the fire when I was 9 years old. and here I am 60 years later still doing it !

I use a firelighter and sticks these days, and with a good flue don't have to 'draw' the fire to get it going. We're ouside the smoke-free zone so I can still use ordinary housecoal and we burn a lot of logs too.

This brings back memories. Ours was a coke fire and you lit a gas jet under the coke to get it going. We used paper to draw ours, if you forgot you had a burnt hole in the middle.

We could only light ours at tea time, it cost too much in coke to burn it all day. However who remembers the magic of Christmas morning as a child when you had opened your pressies and you went downstairs to find the fire blazing.

Sunday mornings as a child was spent making "paper sticks" for lighting mi Granma's fire. We rolled the newspaper sheet diaganolly (it was longer that way) and then platted it into what we called a paper stick. These went under the coal for lighting it.
We didn't have a real fire at home, but I will always remember mi Grams and that fire. And the smell (and taste) of her home made bread in the Oven Range she had.
And that rocking chair by the fire.....and listening to the wireless.

I used to love to walk to school in the mornings and smell the smoke from all the chimneys.
Every now and again Ill be reminded of it because a couple of houses here still have coal fires.

Making toast too in the mornings, theres nothing quite like a big thick slice of bread thats been toasted on a real fire.

Lovely memories, own up any of you males whose wee'd on an open fire :o caught my sons doing it when they were lads :hihi:

I'm mid 30's and when I was younger we had a large old house with no central heating. Each morning my dad would get up and start a fire so that we would be warmed. Ahhhhh.

I do remember crying every bath night in winter though (we only bathed on Sundays as it was soooo cold). Our bathroom was freezing and we used to run downstairs in towels to get into our jammies that were waiting by the fire, then watch the muppets on tv.

I also remember the transition from bedsheets to the new fangled duvets. That was exciting!

It was the smell of the charred newspaper that was so evocative Joto
Don't think I have smelled it since.
We had a yorkshire range and my Dad used to put the large shovel propped at the side of the oven with the newspaper over the top so it was not sucked in immediately, the paper used to char first and then set on fire,
We toasted with a long handled toaster and warmed our feet on the pegged rug in which you could see bits of the clothes you had worn.
Around the rug was linolium, no fitted carpets very cold to the feet.
In one corner was the wieless very large and worked by an accumalater which was like a car battery.
The nine o'clock news was listened to very carefully, no one was allowed to make a sound.
I realised when I was older why. It was because the news was about the war and how we were hopfully winning.

hazel

When i moved up to Scotland my cottage was heated by an open fire, when any visitors came to stay they would always want to tend the fire.
The novelty had long since worn off for me but my guests would feed and tend the fire as if our lives depended on it, even arguing over whether it needed a poke or not.

On one visit i had to let them have their own day to tend the fire and they'd be the 'keeper of the fire' for the day, it was one less chore for me, but keeper of the vacuum didn't work in the same way.

I had so much less rubbish to put in the bin, and collecting bits of driftwood from the beach was a healthy pastime, rewarded by some amazing coloured flames, especially if you had a piece with a copper nail or screw in it.
One of my friends said it was a sad sight to see a fire going out, watching the embers die. not sure if she was just feeling the romance of the occasion or was a secret arsonist.

Lovely memories, own up any of you males whose wee'd on an open fire :o caught my sons doing it when they were lads :hihi:

I have to admit that I did that.

The smell is horrible too.

Who remembers getting up and lighting the fire on a cold winters morning.
First clear the ashes and be careful taking them outside if it was windy or you got a face full.
Screw up the day befores Star into tight balls (broadsheet then) and save a double page to help draw the fire.
Place the paper in the grate and lay the sticks (we always had a boxfull ready) over the paper.
Place the coal on top, only small lumps first till it got going then larger ones.
Pull out the damper (always covered in soot) to help draw the flames and light the paper.
Then the tricky bit came, we used to stretch the double sheet across the front of the fire place sometimes aided with the coal shovel propped in front leaving just a small gap at the bottom to allow the air to be sucked in which fanned the flames.
Many a time has the draw of air been so great that the paper was sucked into the flames igniting it and would have to be quickly snatched back and screwed up before the lot went up.

Once the coal had been lovingly coaxed to flame it was time to wash off as your hands would be as black as the chimney breast.

Next was to get the kettle on and sit with a hot cup of tea admiring the flames dancing and the sticks crackling and that lovely glow of warmth that hit you in the face because you were sitting about 6 inches from it.

MAGIC !!!!

The forum is the most amazing website. only joined to see one thread and have spent the last week agog at some of the topics. my housework is not being done and yorkshire puddings with rabbit gravy will become a thing of the past until I lose myaddiction.

However, to get back to your comments about open fires... we had an open fire when we lived at carbrook but became posh at firth park with a raeburn with back boiler, still had to be made but was gas assisted,

The fire was great if you were lucky enough to be within its range but it was not the best for heating the house. the chimney upstairs was always warm but, call me a killjoy , give me central heating every time.

A few years ago we rented a cottage in roybridge, scotland; from the garden we could see Ben Nevis with snow on the top and the woman who rented the cottage met us to show us the "facilities "- talk about breaking the trade description act- there weren't any.

she proudly showed us the central heating radiators, perhaps they were a new innovation in the village ,but didn't tell us that we had to light the coal fire to power/heat the radiators and get hot water.

Now my husband is a resourceful man from grimesthorpe (and possibly a closet pyromaniac), but he set to making this fire with gusto (we didn't have any firelighters) and eventually after using the shovel and daily mirror as a draw the fire was glowing. after about 4 hours the radiators started to get warm and the job was a gud un. It was warmer out in the garden than in that cottage but late at night when we retired to bed, the smell of soot from the fire was forgotten as we climbed into the bed warmed by an electric blanket. Bliss! Now that is nostalgia ! Not been near one of these for 40 years.

At the end of the week my husband vowed he would never light another fire for the rest of his life, although he would have got a fire-making badge had he belonged to the scouts and the electricilty bill she gave us for using the electric blanket brought our nostalgia down to earth with a bump.

I have to admit that I did that.

The smell is horrible too.

Why did I just know that it would be you Jabbers that would answer that one :lol: Or the only one brave enough to admit it. :hihi:

Who remembers getting up and lighting the fire on a cold winters morning.
First clear the ashes and be careful taking them outside if it was windy or you got a face full.
Screw up the day befores Star into tight balls (broadsheet then) and save a double page to help draw the fire.
Place the paper in the grate and lay the sticks (we always had a boxfull ready) over the paper.
Place the coal on top, only small lumps first till it got going then larger ones.
Pull out the damper (always covered in soot) to help draw the flames and light the paper.
Then the tricky bit came, we used to stretch the double sheet across the front of the fire place sometimes aided with the coal shovel propped in front leaving just a small gap at the bottom to allow the air to be sucked in which fanned the flames.
Many a time has the draw of air been so great that the paper was sucked into the flames igniting it and would have to be quickly snatched back and screwed up before the lot went up.

Once the coal had been lovingly coaxed to flame it was time to wash off as your hands would be as black as the chimney breast.

Next was to get the kettle on and sit with a hot cup of tea admiring the flames dancing and the sticks crackling and that lovely glow of warmth that hit you in the face because you were sitting about 6 inches from it.

MAGIC !!!!

Interesting post but you forgot to mention black leading or did you have a new fangled enamel one and as for toast, you couldn’t beat home baked bread toasted on a open fire.

we must have been realy posh we had a gas poker .just light it then stick it under the coal for a bit .was anyone else as posh as us ?:hihi:

its all coming back now we used to put the ashes on the path in winter .great for the ice/snow but terrible for the carpets

When I was very young we always had a coal fire, as did both sets of Grandparents. Never fails to get my nostalgic juices flowing. My main memories are:

The burly, rotund, permanently black yet friendly man who used to deliver our coal in big sacks - a kind of monochrome Santa;
My parents arguing over whose turn it was to go and get more coal in on a freezing cold night;
Once finding a fully-intact (if somewhat sooty) fish, about 18 inches long, in amongst the coal in the bunker outside;
The constant bubbling noise from the back-boiler (I always thought it was the fire itself that made the noise);
My dad once being hospitalised after a small pocket of gas trapped inside a lump of coal exploded in his face as he was poking the fire;

I also remember a mate of mine at school telling me about his Grandad who would fall asleep after tea for about an hour, then when he awoke he would always gob ceremoniously in the fire before going out down the club. This lasted until they eventually had a gas fire fitted. Unfortunately, on the first day, in a state of dazed semi-awakeness he forgot that they no longer had an open fire, with imaginably disgusting consequences....

Then there was the (quite possibly apocryphal) tale I once read from the war about a family who were in the process of building the fire in their living room when the air raid sirens went off. When they returned follwing the "all clear" they were surprised to find a lovely big roaring fire blazing away in the grate, in the middle of which could be seen the remains of an incendiary bomb. It had, by an amazing chance, been dropped right down their chimney during the air raid, and the ensuing fire had been all but contained by the grate.

When i moved up to Scotland my cottage was heated by an open fire, when any visitors came to stay they would always want to tend the fire.
The novelty had long since worn off for me but my guests would feed and tend the fire as if our lives depended on it, even arguing over whether it needed a poke or not.

On one visit i had to let them have their own day to tend the fire and they'd be the 'keeper of the fire' for the day, it was one less chore for me, but keeper of the vacuum didn't work in the same way.

I had so much less rubbish to put in the bin, and collecting bits of driftwood from the beach was a healthy pastime, rewarded by some amazing coloured flames, especially if you had a piece with a copper nail or screw in it.
One of my friends said it was a sad sight to see a fire going out, watching the embers die. not sure if she was just feeling the romance of the occasion or was a secret arsonist.

Just returned from the west coast of Scotland after a weeks break fishing on the banks of Lock Sween in an old cottage beside the Loch.
When we arrived we were greeted with a notification of power interruptions.
The cottage had an old Fireplace with plenty of logs and a supply of coal.
I had forgot how good food cooked on the open fire tasted.Fortunatly there was old cast iron pand and kettles around after cleaning bacon and eggs were good.
On my return back home to Inverness I want a chimney so I can have a coal fire as I remember as a kid.
This post have taken me back to my childhood and fond memories Thanks

Lovely memories, own up any of you males whose wee'd on an open fire :o caught my sons doing it when they were lads :hihi:

tell thee a joke about a bloke
who p***ed on fire and made it smoke
tell thee another about his brother
he did same the dirty bugger :P

Just returned from the west coast of Scotland after a weeks break fishing on the banks of Lock Sween in an old cottage beside the Loch.
When we arrived we were greeted with a notification of power interruptions.
The cottage had an old Fireplace with plenty of logs and a supply of coal.
I had forgot how good food cooked on the open fire tasted.Fortunatly there was old cast iron pand and kettles around after cleaning bacon and eggs were good.
On my return back home to Inverness I want a chimney so I can have a coal fire as I remember as a kid.
This post have taken me back to my childhood and fond memories Thanks

Food cooked on the fire is such a satisfying achivement.
I lived right by the river Luce and had a biscuit tin with holes in the lid, i'd put oak shavings in the bottom and some mesh over the shavings to put my salmon steaks on (salmon often fell out of the river)
i'd pop the lid on and put the tin on the embers for a lovely smoked salmon steak.

Food cooked on the fire is such a satisfying achivement.
I lived right by the river Luce and had a biscuit tin with holes in the lid, i'd put oak shavings in the bottom and some mesh over the shavings to put my salmon steaks on (salmon often fell out of the river)
i'd pop the lid on and put the tin on the embers for a lovely smoked salmon steak.

Nice reply can't fault you, hope you have many happy days.

Best Regards

We've got a fire blazing away today. It's certainly cold enough for it.

Although we live in a smokeless zone, the local shop sells bags of real coal. So much nicer than that smokeless stuff because it actually burns.

No smoke without fire, and vice versa.

Very useful having coal delivered. My mum was v slim, it has to be said, but would always use the coalhole as an emergency entrance when she'd forgotten her house key. My grandma's house had a Baxi fire, where the metal plate at the back used to heat up the water. The other thing I remember is my Great Auntie Flo, who couldn't read or write, who used to tell fortunes by gazing into the fire.
I miss our coal fire so much.

Lovely memories, own up any of you males whose wee'd on an open fire :o caught my sons doing it when they were lads :hihi:

:hihi:everyone to their own, hope you dont do it in the sauna:gag::o

Lovely memories, own up any of you males whose wee'd on an open fire :o caught my sons doing it when they were lads :hihi:


In the fire,no. Down the sink,yes! Had the tap running to disguise it-until I was caught. Did'nt do it again!!

Luxury, to light a fire in the morning.
I seem to remember it was only later in the day when I came home from school that we light a fire.
I remember going to the neighbour who worked down the pit and had extra coal allowance, borrowing a bucket of coal till we could afford ,or the rations allowed us to get more coal

after years of burning the star while drawing the fire,dad got a piece of tin plate and we just stuck it up on the grate,worked a treat, and the hot oven plate wrapped in a towel on a cold night was well worth looking forward to...

Back in the late 60's it was my grandad's 'job' to light the fire. Being ex-military everything was done according a routine which inluded knocking on the living room ceiling with a broom handle to wake me up for work once the fire was in full flow.

One day a bird fell into the chimmney and got stuck - unknown to Grandad - he lit the fire as usual but the smoke just found its way into my bedroom via the old fireplace that was still there and shared the same flue as the one downstairs. Came the knocking on the floor and I awoke to thick dense smoke and immediate coughing etc - for a few mins I thought the house was on fire, but then saw the smoke pouring out the fireplace. I struggled out of bed and opened the windows - obvioulsy ran downstairs to tell the old man to put the fire out as we had a major problem.

All I can say is that is was a good job it was a working day as at weekends Grandad let me sleep - had it been a Saturday I may not be here now typing this.

A few years ago we bought a house that had a real fire - but only as 'decoration' but my family wondered why i was so keen to have the chimmney fitted with a bird guard before we lit a single stick!

In the fire,no. Down the sink,yes! Had the tap running to disguise it-until I was caught. Did'nt do it again!!i once walked a new girlfriend home,we had towait till her dad went to bed before we could go in the house,she said her dad hated her bringing blokes back

we got in,settled on the sofa in front of the coal fire,after about half an hour i needed the toilet,she said it was next door to her dads room and would be risky,so she told me to use the sink in the kitchen

anyway,twenty minutes later she whispered through the kitchen door " have you finished yet?"

" yes" i said, " have you any toilet paper ? "............

I grew up in a semi in Gleadless which had a fire in the lounge which also heated a back boiler and a back oven which went through the wall into the kitchen. The fireplace was a type called an !all night burner"; if I remember right (and I left there over 40 years ago), last thing at night Dad would riddle the fire, pour the ashes on top of the fire and put up a metal screen about 6" high which clipped on to the top of he grate front.
In the morning, the first one downstairs would remove the screen, jiggle the poker in the fire to let the ashes down through the grate, open the circular air vent and, lo and behold, the fire would usually spring back to life, though sometimes you had to draw it with a sheet of newspaper as described above. This became my regular morning job as I was a good early riser.
A few years later, when I was about 13, I found a further use for the fire. If you blew smoke into it, it would go straight up the chimney and not swirl around the room. So, while doing my fire-trimming duties, I would liberate a Senior Service from my Mum's packet which she always left on the mantelpiece overnight, enjoy a pleasant morning smoke and my parents never knew. Tut, tut. I have not tasted a Senior Service for many years but, telling this story, I can now remember the flavour, and also how my head would spin a bit afterwards! I don't think they were mild cigarettes.
How strange that someone just mentioned gas pokers. I was talking to someone about these just yesterday, and mentioning that I had not seen one for a long time. When I used to visit my school friend Jon in Fitzwalter Road, they had a gas poker there and it ignited their fire very quickly. Are gas pokers still made?

Staying with the coal fire theme, do any of you remember the miners free coal allowance.
My dad worked down the pit (Treeton & Orgreave) and he used to get coal allowance of, & correct me if I am wrong of 20 sacks per month.

He would always try and make sure that someone was there to count them as they were carried to the coal bunker knocked up by my dad(we whitewashed the coalhouse & used it for coats & boots etc.).

If the coalmen thought they could get away with it they would drop one or two short which they could sell later.

Do any of you also remember cellars below the house that were used to store coal. On delivery day they would drop the coal down the coil ole (ours was at the front of our first house on Burnell road,hillsborough), before dropping it you had to make sure you had enough coal up for the rest of the day as it took hours for the coal dust to settle.

Then you had to sweep and wash the stairs down to stop walking the coal dust on the carpets.

My mum used to put a small lump of washed coal in with the salad to keep it crisp.

Also remember the new years ritual at my Mum & Dads. As soon as Big Ben had chimed in the new year my young wife (because she had black hair)was made to go outside and knock on the door then enter and stoke the fire,they said it was for good luck in the new year, can anyone elaborate on this practice ???


Oh yeah,,, I have just had a memory flash. In winter do any of you remember last thing at night letting the coal fire get low then topping it up slack (coal dust and really small pieces of coal found at the bottom of the pile) and topping it with used wet tea leaves to form a type of crust.
You could keep the fire going for hours like this although it didn't throw a great deal of heat out.

That sounds like a variation on First Footing, which I beleive is a custom of Scottish origin. People knock on neighbours' doors just after midnight on New year's Day and present them with a piece of coal and, I think (though this bit may be wrong) a candle - to symbolise heat and light, the idea being that they will then enjoy ample heat and light all through the year.
As for a small piec eof coal in the salad, er, April Fool's Day has long gone now. Has anyone else heard of this quaint culinary custom? If the right people see this, coal will soon feature in the menus of those TV Chef programmes, probably with a raspberry coulis on top of it.

I can remember my Dad just before going to bed fetching the coal shovel and sticking it into the living room fire lifting the burning coals out and taking them upstairs to the fireplace in the bedroom. Once there they would heat the room before they went up to bed.

Now that’s what I call recycling (or very dangerous)

Staying with the coal fire theme, do any of you remember the miners free coal allowance.
My dad worked down the pit (Treeton & Orgreave) and he used to get coal allowance of, & correct me if I am wrong of 20 sacks per month.


My dad's allowance came loose - it was a ton as you say. It was dumped on the road outside the front door and usually happened when he was on 'afternoons' - so I'd come home from school and have to get it down the cellar before it got dark. Some of the lumps were too big to go down the grate and I had to break them up with a lump hammer. It was usually too wet to cause any dust.


Oh yeah,,, I have just had a memory flash. In winter do any of you remember last thing at night letting the coal fire get low then topping it up slack (coal dust and really small pieces of coal found at the bottom of the pile) and topping it with used wet tea leaves to form a type of crust.
You could keep the fire going for hours like this although it didn't throw a great deal of heat out.

We did that too. In the morning the fire just needed a good poke and the application of the shovel a sheet of newspaper to get it up bright again. As a kid one of my jobs was to riddle the coal to keep a couple of buckets of slack handy for banking up.

We had a Yorkshire range in the kitchen so there were two fires to look after.

Staying with the coal fire theme, do any of you remember the miners free coal allowance.
My dad worked down the pit (Treeton & Orgreave) and he used to get coal allowance of, & correct me if I am wrong of 20 sacks per month.

He would always try and make sure that someone was there to count them as they were carried to the coal bunker knocked up by my dad(we whitewashed the coalhouse & used it for coats & boots etc.).

If the coalmen thought they could get away with it they would drop one or two short which they could sell later.

Do any of you also remember cellars below the house that were used to store coal. On delivery day they would drop the coal down the coil ole (ours was at the front of our first house on Burnell road,hillsborough), before dropping it you had to make sure you had enough coal up for the rest of the day as it took hours for the coal dust to settle.

Then you had to sweep and wash the stairs down to stop walking the coal dust on the carpets.

My mum used to put a small lump of washed coal in with the salad to keep it crisp.

Also remember the new years ritual at my Mum & Dads. As soon as Big Ben had chimed in the new year my young wife (because she had black hair)was made to go outside and knock on the door then enter and stoke the fire,they said it was for good luck in the new year, can anyone elaborate on this practice ???


Oh yeah,,, I have just had a memory flash. In winter do any of you remember last thing at night letting the coal fire get low then topping it up slack (coal dust and really small pieces of coal found at the bottom of the pile) and topping it with used wet tea leaves to form a type of crust.
You could keep the fire going for hours like this although it didn't throw a great deal of heat out.
i can remember i was a milkman customers used to put a piece of coal on the front door step and i suppose i was the first one to go to the front door in a morning so i knocked on the door i would go in the door and out of the back door long time as past

When looking back, the coal fire always seems to evoke these memories, however, I bless the day the council came around and installed our 'Gas Miser'. To get up in the morning and have heat at the flick of a switch was sheer luxury.

My granbdfather lived with us until he died when I was about 4, and because he was an ex-miner we had a coal allowance and so my mu would be up lighting the fire. When Granddad died the first thing that happened was that she replaced the coal fire with a gas fire. :)

My Aunty Harriet kept her coal fire - it was a magnificent beast with an oven to one side. I used to stay with her quite a lot and eventually graduated when I was about 10 to lighting the fire under her supervision.

She had a 'coal scuttle' to one side which was always kept topped up. Part of my duties in my teens was to keep it filled whenever I stayed there. They had a concrete coal bunker in the garden, and when it was nearly empty it was always an excercise to get teh coal out of the back of it. As I was a keen rock collector, I would examine every big piece of coal for anything interesting - fools gold or the possibility of a fossil.

Occasionally there would be a loud 'crack' and a piece of hot coal woul some flying out - usually caught by the fireguard but occasionally catching the rug, then followed by the singed wool smell. And silverfish! Always hanging around the darker corners around the fireplace!

I can remember my Dad just before going to bed fetching the coal shovel and sticking it into the living room fire lifting the burning coals out and taking them upstairs to the fireplace in the bedroom. Once there they would heat the room before they went up to bed.

Now that’s what I call recycling (or very dangerous)

Bedpans! One of my VERY old aunts had a bedpan that was filled in the same way. How the Hell they never burnt the house down I have no idea!

until a month ago when we had gas central heating installed i had lit a coal fire every day of my married life (35 years) many years ago after several attempts to get the fire to light my husband walked in and asked why it was taking so long to light as he was cold upon which i picked the carrier bag up that the cold ashes were in and threw them at him. Luckily the bag stayed closed so why did he have to kick the bag back to me. As the dust settled the whole room was covered in white ash we then laughed as the fire suddenly took hold and gave some heat out.

Re Sezlez comments
I can remember letting the new year in. You came into the kitchen stoked the fire with the poker and said
Happy new year happy new year
Plenty of money and a cellar full of beer
a horse and a gig and a big fat pig
to last you all next year

An open fire did make a room look more inviting and I remember toasting bread in front of ours in Crosspool. Did chestnuts as well. I'd love one now but wouldn't fancy the hassle of lighting it after carrying the ashes out. Then you've got to wait over an hour for the room to warm up.

Remember helping Mam by tightly rolling newspapers & tying them into a knot, saving on firewood. In that aweful 1947 winter, when the fire was poked the ashes were sorted, any lumps however small were put back onto the fire. In our house domestic hot water was heated in a boiler behind the fire, if you had no fire, hot water had to be boiled in the washing copper or on the one gas ring, which was connected to the gas tap by a rubber hose.

I still do this, and I go to Church regularly.

]Remember helping Mam by tightly rolling newspapers [/B]& tying them into a knot, saving on firewood. In that aweful 1947 winter, when the fire was poked the ashes were sorted, any lumps however small were put back onto the fire. In our house domestic hot water was heated in a boiler behind the fire, if you had no fire, hot water had to be boiled in the washing copper or on the one gas ring, which was connected to the gas tap by a rubber hose.

We used to call the rolled up papers poms, no idea why, sometimes put sugar in them to get the fire going quicker.

Had to get the fire going early on a Friday to heat the water for bath night. We didn't have an immersion heater in the 50's.

soi remember my grans big open fire place ,it had an oven on one side and a stand to rest a big kettle on at the other side that was always on the boil. at weekends if i stayed she would be up early getting the fire going sometimes using a pair of bellows or she would put a shovel in front of grate and place a sheet of newspaper in front to draw the fire . she would make bread dough up in a big pansion i think it was called and bake breadcakes in the oven , we would toast bread on a long three pronged fork and see pictures in the fire,

did anyone use to sit too near to it like my sister and get "mottled legs"?

my aunt is 94 and still has a cole fire and gets up every morning and makes it herself even fetches the cole in from outside,and yes she chucks the ashes on the garden i must admit the earth in her garden is wonderful

my aunt is 94 and still has a cole fire and gets up every morning and makes it herself even fetches the cole in from outside,and yes she chucks the ashes on the garden i must admit the earth in her garden is wonderful

Best stuff for the garden is fire ash, your aunt is right, we used to put it on the pavement to melt the snow! I now put my own wood ash on the garden it is great.

still do. only i dont let it go out.

Who remembers getting up and lighting the fire on a cold winters morning.
First clear the ashes and be careful taking them outside if it was windy or you got a face full.
Screw up the day befores Star into tight balls (broadsheet then) and save a double page to help draw the fire.
Place the paper in the grate and lay the sticks (we always had a boxfull ready) over the paper.
Place the coal on top, only small lumps first till it got going then larger ones.
Pull out the damper (always covered in soot) to help draw the flames and light the paper.
Then the tricky bit came, we used to stretch the double sheet across the front of the fire place sometimes aided with the coal shovel propped in front leaving just a small gap at the bottom to allow the air to be sucked in which fanned the flames.
Many a time has the draw of air been so great that the paper was sucked into the flames igniting it and would have to be quickly snatched back and screwed up before the lot went up.

Once the coal had been lovingly coaxed to flame it was time to wash off as your hands would be as black as the chimney breast.

Next was to get the kettle on and sit with a hot cup of tea admiring the flames dancing and the sticks crackling and that lovely glow of warmth that hit you in the face because you were sitting about 6 inches from it.

MAGIC !!!!

We used to throw the ashes back onto the fire and more than not it could be brought into life with a few sticks and a lot of blowing.

Remember helping Mam by tightly rolling newspapers & tying them into a knot, saving on firewood. In that aweful 1947 winter, when the fire was poked the ashes were sorted, any lumps however small were put back onto the fire. In our house domestic hot water was heated in a boiler behind the fire, if you had no fire, hot water had to be boiled in the washing copper or on the one gas ring, which was connected to the gas tap by a rubber hose.
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THOSE WERE THE DAYS AND COAL WAS A LUXURY FOR SOME AS
I REMEMBER, UNTIL WE HAD OUR TIN BATH WE USED A FLANNEL TO
WIPE OURSELF DOWN. :hihi:

my grandfather John Henry Brown a retired miner lived on Catley Road Darnall, with his family.he kept his canary from down the pit when he retired,(used to detect gas). One early morning he went downstairs to light the fire, but noticed the canary was dead, in the bottom of its cage immediately raised the alarm and cleared the house Thank goodness, it was a major gas leak, if he had struck a match first it would have been a major disaster. The canary was in retirement, but possibly had saved all their lives.

they STILL DO light the fire round these parts