Touch Burners on Wincobank Hill

[Arundel 10]

Who remembers "Touch Burners?"

Going back quite a while, to the 1930s, I lived on Clematis Road when the Flower Estate was a respectable and gentile place. The kids used to play on Wincobank Hill (Old Man Martin was the Park Keeper and had a little shed just off Daffodil Road.) One activity we involved ourselves in was making touchburners.

 

These were hollow baked clay pots we used to make from a patch of wet clay that existed just down from the allotments. It was lovely soft natural clay which we kids moulded into round or square shapes and hollowed out, then poked holes in the sides, and put bits of touchwood in them. When set alight the wood sent up smoke and our game was to run around holding them up in the air with the smoke streaming out from behind us.

 

After a while the touchburner would be baked hard like pot. Grown-ups would never bother us and we would have great fun with this simple game. The name comes from Touchwood Burner -touchwood being that soft white rotten wood you get when an old tree has lain rotting for some years. I took a nostalgic walk on the Flower Estate a couple of years ago and was dismayed to find my birthplace had been bulldozed but that same patch of wet clay was there so I scooped up a couple of handsful and took it home in a handkerchief. I have not lost the skill of making a touchburner.

 

Does any of this ring a bell after 70 odd years?.

 

Don't tell me! More recently kids did something similar but used stolen cars.

[Puffin4 10]

Hi Arundel,

 

I do remember making touch burners in the 1940's but graduated to winter warmers as they gave off more heat. The winter warmer was a can, usually treacle as being a bit more robust, with holes in its sides and a wire loop handle. When it was lit, it could be swung in the air, to aid combustion. Sounds a dangerous pastime but I don't recall anyone having a serious accident and most of my pals possessed one. Of course, after starting grammar school, it became infra dig!

[lakerman 16]

Hi Arundel, I'm 60 years old and when I was in my early teens (1960's) we used to make them in Firth Park. We got the clay from the banks of the stream that runs through the park and the best wood to use was from trees that were dead.

I suppose it could been seen as a bit dangerous but we loved it and spent many hours amusing ourselves in the process.

[Redneck 10]

Hi Arundel.

When I was around 4 or 5 years old, I lived at the the far end of Greystones Grange Road ( from Greystones Road ). That was as far as the houses were built but the Corporation was putting in more of the road so they had this hut with a coke fire in an old drum where we would spend hours making the clay burners you have described. We would blow in the hole in the side to get the rotten wood burning and then run with them to make all that lovely smoke. In those days we had to amuse ourselves since the adults didn't feel any obligation to do it for us.

[hillsbro 29]

I remember these from 50+ years ago. In 1954, Hillsborough Park pond was drained so that they could build the concrete banks that still surround most of it. This exposed some lovely yellow clay (which we soon christened "cat sh*t clay"). We were fortunate in that our house on Dykes Hall Road had an old Yorkshire range in the (disused) cellar-kitchen, so we would light a fire and get to work with the wet clay. We formed it into brick shapes about seven inches long, then hollowed out each "brick" and made a hole in each end. The hollow bricks were then baked in the oven, and came out reassuringly hard. We would put cotton waste in them ("engine waste" that our dad cleaned his hands with at Firth Brown's) and light it. If need be the fire could be kept burning by blowing through one of the holes. Lovely for warming the hands on cold winter nights as you were sledging or going on cat-walks... We also made winter-warmers out of tin cans, and called them "bull-roarers" from the sound they made when we whirled them round on the end of a chain or length of wire. Memories...

[Arundel 10]

It's good to hear from several old folks about their recollections on touch burners. Warms the heart! Thanks. I liked the bit about blowing down the hole to get the wood burning. That really took me back. I just wonder if any kids today know how to make them, although I suppose that in todays nanny culture they would be discouraged. In my first post on this this topic I mentioned that I had found our clay patch on Wincobank Hill and made one, which is now displayed in my cabinet for the grand children to see, and perhaps use 'under supervision'.

Thmile, as Gloops would say.

Arundel.

[sweetdexter 10]

There was a thread "Old farts from the 40s .do you remember these kids pastimes"?Talked about the 'Burners'

[BLITZER 10]

In the thirties,we would get our clay from somewhere in Meersbrook park. We used bits

of old rags as 'fuel'. Amazing what kids did to amuse themselves in those far off days.

[hillsbro 29]

It's good to hear from several old folks about their recollections on touch burners. Warms the heart!

 

Hmmmm. "Old folks".... I am 59. Looks like I've "arrived". Oh well - it could be worse. I get my bus pass next year. That warms the heart...

[johnpm 18]

I lived on Hinde House Lane and remember making touchburners from clay we got at the side of the stream in Firth Park woods at the side of the library.

Shows how we enjoyed simple pleasures then - can't see kids today doing it - can you?

[Redneck 10]

It seems that these " burners " were common all over the city in the good old days - it is surprising that such a simple thing would become so popular. I thought that I was the only person on earth who made them ( circa 1935 ).

[Floridablade 11]

Yes Meersbrook park near the Cliffe Field road entrance if you walked to the top of the hill near the swings there was an old tree which supplied endless fuel. The clay was got from a little stream which ran nearby. Touchburners were as much use as a chocolate kettle for keeping your hands warm because, well mine did anyway, got too hot resulting in me dropping it and there, lying in the snow with bits of charcoal burning my shorts. Am talking abart durin't war tha knows.

 

Remember the air raid shelters at the bottom of the hill we used to sledge down and the Barrage balloon site over by the museum.