When Did People Stop Washing Their Doorsteps?

[Norbert 145]

I'll never forget Cup Final day 1973, I was a hyped up 7 year old, keen to see if Sunderland could pull off an incredible cup run, the match got underway and was thrilling. Then my mam ran in screaming, blood dripping from her hand. She'd taken the opportunity to scrub the front step while me and father watched the game, a huge splinter had come off the sill and gone in deep under her thumbnail. Father had to break off and take her to A&E to get it removed leaving me to watch the match with gran looking after me. Best cup final ever.

Edited June 1, 2020 by Norbert
Got my sill mixed up with my jamb

[lazarus 68]

“Donkey Stoning” the front doorsteps ended when women and men stopped taking a pride in their houses, you could have nothing of note inside the home but the spotless exterior gave a very different message, I live surrounded mainly by young families , 19 and up, they never clean their windows, they haven’t taught their kids about not dropping litter, if they have gardens most of them are just turned into rubbish dumps despite the council stating that gardens and properties should be kept in a reasonable condition, the council is just a toothless lion. When some of these families move to other areas, the council descend on the properties and spend thousands on repairs on the damage caused by the last tenant.

My mother, grandmother took a great pride in their homes and never once took money off the state unlike today when that’s the first thing that a good majority of people do today.

 

 

 

[Padders 2,843]

18 hours ago, gene said:

It was pride in having a nice clean doorstep and windowsills with nice clean nets to the windows. The house may have been poor inside but cleanliness cost very little.  They also used to sweep the pavements and swill them down.  Same as today - some keep their fronts nice and tidy and clean their front doors and windowsills even if they are PVC  - others do not.  

Some even white weshed the walls in the coilhouse.

[zach 234]

18 minutes ago, Padders said:

Some even white weshed the walls in the coilhouse.

My nan was reyt posh! She and grandad Syd had white weshed coil oy'l. And parts of the cellar. I used to hate that place! It was my job to go into that cave full of spiders and get coal for the fire.

[pattricia 574]

13 hours ago, zach said:

My nan was reyt posh! She and grandad Syd had white weshed coil oy'l. And parts of the cellar. I used to hate that place! It was my job to go into that cave full of spiders and get coal for the fire.

People used to say “ Are that gonna bring coal up ? “ We had to leave it ont cellar steps.!

[Halibut 12]

On 31/05/2020 at 12:12, cressida said:

I use a Dettol spray on the doormat as the letterbox is very low on our front door.

Why? What are hoping to achieve?

[zach 234]

7 hours ago, pattricia said:

People used to say “ Are that gonna bring coal up ? “ We had to leave it ont cellar steps.!

Yes, very common words from my grandad.

 

I was thinking back to what was said earlier and how true it was, they had very little inside the house but it was always clean. The outside of the house looked like a new pin! Fairly sure it was a council house, or "corporation" as they called it.