How poor were you?

I can equate with a lot of these lovely stories ! I ws born in 1947 and was lucky in that my mother had inherited the 3 up 3 down house from her parents who had it built for them when my grandad was promoted to engineer on the railways and drove the Ipswich to London 'express' (not sure how long it took in the days of steam to get there !) so my mother had a good childhood ..there are even photos taken professionally showing her in a velvet dress and leather button shoes ! However, when she married my dad, who had been sent to Suffolk from Liverpool when there was no work there, to train as an engineer, her brother said he was no longer talking to her as she had 'married beneath her' we were very poor ....by Tuesday there was only beef soup with potatoes in it cooked by turning the electric one bar fire on its back ...can you imagine that now, with small children in the house !!! I was sent to the corner shop (only go to Mrs Squirrel, as Mrs Kerridge doesn't have an 'until Friday' book ...to ask for a loaf of bread 'till Friday.

When my dad came home from work on Friday he handed my mother a white £5 note so we went off shopping to the Co-op...the problem was, this would have been a lot to some people, but my mother (and I always believed this was because she once had a good living with her parents) would spend the lot and by Monday there was no money left !

We used to have the cinders from the coal fire laid down to the outside loo when it snowed ...no heating, hot water , fridge, etc and definitely no tv ! We did have a piano which I desperately wanted to learn to play but was told it was too expensive ! I later learnt that my mother had private piano lessons as a child and was upset that she refused to help me learn! Clothes were a bit hit and miss but someone along the road from us had a daughter a few years older and so used to pass on her clothes for me ..my entire school uniform came from her .I was one of the few in my class therefore to have a blazer and a navy mac complete with a school scarf ! My brothers clothes came from the second hand shop. Christmas was not too bad ,,,always a small chicken, and a few presents like toy engines for my brother a doll and a book for me, I loved books, and belonged to the library which I loved and used to read at least three books a week. We did have a 'wireless' which had to be turned on to warm up before my dad came home at 1.p.m for his 'dinner' !! There wasnt much food, but we survived ......I recall my dad referring to anyone who chose not to work (not through ill health) a 'waster' ....and anyone (like me, who worked in an office) a pen pusher ....

I recently found, online through an Ancestry researching site a long lost cousin still living in Suffolk who remembers my mother and visiting her before she married my dad, whilst she was still living in the old family home ..so its good to be able to discuss the family now with him !

Probably made me appreciate the things I have now, although by no means wealthy !

Chamber pots! Our toilet was outside so yes, we each had a gazunda.

And I remember Mum doing the washing for all of us in a dolly tub and using a hand mangle until she got an Acme gas washing machine - the water was heated by gas jets underneath and I think there was a mangle attached. She used dolly blue to make the sheets nice and white!

Someone upthread mentioned chamber pots. Although my grandparents' semi had a bathroom and toilet, granny still had (and used!) the china chamber pot under her bed rather than visit the bathroom in the middle of the night!

I was born in 1955, lived in a small cottage in a very rural community. Coal fire in Sitting Room, Rayburn (not posh enough for an AGA) in kitchen, Pantry for all food - no fridge, outside toilet (IZAL or newspaper, eventually soft paper which went damp) & "potty" or "gazunder" for nights. Tin bath in front of Rayburn. No electricity until I was 5 as Farmer across the road wouldn't have it installed. Ice on inside of windows.

Did I feel poor - no, lots of people in similar circumstances & we ate well as we had a large garden & grew lots of fruit & veg. Granddad kept chickens so eggs were always available & the occasional "old boiler" for the pot. Mum baked lots, she stayed at home until after I started school & then got a job cleaning for a neighbour. Dad was a Painter & Decorator & later worked for ICI.

When I was 11 my Parents managed to buy the Farm Buildings attached to our Cottage - Bathroom, Central Heating & big kitchen with a fridge (still had a Pantry for storage) - it was luxury. I was 8 when we got a black & white tv, we only got BBC1 until a new transmitter was erected for BBC2, we then got ITV as well. My parents didn't get a colour tv until after I left home!!!!

I loved my childhood, so much freedom, my Parents did have some arguements but stayed together until my Dad sadly died of a heart attack at 49, they were married 26 years. What memories we have, my DH was brought up in London (born 1941) - remembered being evacuated with his Mum & Brother & playing on bombsites after the war.

.I was brought up in a two and a half bed council house my parents moved into three months after they married in 1947(my mum was there for 50years). Coal /(free)wood fire in the living room and ,on special occasions, the front room .Back boiler which heated the water. I remember you could hear it boiling. And had to be run off, as mum worried the tank would burst- she would ask who wanted a bath!We did have an indoor bathroom and toilet .Rest of the house including the tiny 'back kitchen'was freezing . (The council gutted it and put in central heating after mum moved out which peed me off a bit)No electricity til 1962 (rural Wales).So Tilley Lamps on the mantel piece -they hissed but gave a decent light .Candles upstairs .Oh the joy of reading in bed once we had electricity.And using the library in town when I went to grammar school
But dad worked on my grandad's farm so we had milk and eggs and we had a very productive kitchen garden. Mum had green fingers and was a good manager -though dreadfully untidy,the house was always clean .Dad handed over his pay every week and she gave him back his 'pocket money'. I'm not sure they even had a bank account .They were never in debt (me neither. An ingrained habit) never had a credit card and the only thing they ever bought on the never never was a new cooker from the electricy board.I was in my late teens before dad had his own car I recall the excitment We never went hungry and the food was good and nutritious.But I was sixteen before I ever ate a restaurant meal .Fish and chips from a cafe was a rare treat (there were only two of us kids. I wonder now if that was deliberate so they could give us a decent life)
She knitted and was an excellent needlewoman .We also got hand me downs from richer family in Sheffield .Dad made us toys .I had a doll's cot and my brother a tractor and trailer he made .
So, always well fed and well dressed and ,most importantly ,so very well loved .
We only ever had two holidays, with the said richer relatives (dad's sister married a bank manager) but otherwise we had days out in the beautiful countryside where we lived (dad borrowed grandad's car)with the traditional British picnic complete with primus stove for the tea.
I realised our relative poverty only when I went to secondary school and became friendly with children from better off middle class families .But class distinctions were very blurred and my best friend was (still is)the daughter of a headmaster with whom my dad got on very well .They owned a detached house .
I was quite academic and used to sit working in my bedroom for GCSEsand A levels .I never realised at the time how much they must have sacrificed so I could have an electric fire up there .And I was encouraged to stay on to sixth form ,thence to university .It would have made life so much easier for them if I had gone out to work and contributed but it was never even hinted at .
Thanks mum and dad .We were rich in the things that mattered

I was born in 1944 and when I look back now I think my parents must have struggled but, of course, nobody talked about money, and nobody expected something for nothing. My father was a plumber (not such a well-paid job then) and my mother was a school cleaner. We always had food on the table - nothing special but always filling and nourishing, the oven was never turned on unless it was full of baking (cheaper to fill the oven than using it every day), and our house was always cosy, even if we did only use one room. The bedrooms were cold though, but everybody was the same, so nobody complained. There was no such thing as 'keeping up with the Jones's'.We all seemed so much more content then than people do nowadays, but this is probably just because there is so much choice now.

I had a London childhood. My parents must have found it hard to manage, but I think they went without to provide for we children. Three of us.
My Dad made out Christmas presents - things like a desk, a dolls house, a garage, a car track. dolls pushchairs. We thought they were fantastic. He made my girls s desk each too - rather more modern in style. I gave them to the British Heart Foundation and they sold them almost immediately.
We never went hungry unless we couldn't eat the meal. There was no alternative. I can remember balking at tripe and onions even though I was really famished.
I do remember the awful clothes my sister and I had to wear.
Hand me downs from extended family. Family photos show us in some bizarre hats, and that feeling that came with having to wear something that marked you out as being a bit odd. We were always as well shod as they could manage.
Our house had no central heating as was the norm in those days and Jack Frost patterns appeared on the inside of the windows. No fires in bedrooms unless you were ill. The bathroom was freezing. Only one fire downstairs around which we'd all cluster, although there was a sort of range in the kitchen on which the kettle was always singing. At Christmas we;d have a fire in the 'front room' too where there were family gatherings and games.
I think my parents managed well on limited means and thought of us first, for which I'm thankful and probably wasn't thankful enough at the time.

Yes libraries were a life-saver - you could get away from the everyday world and become absorbed somewhere else.

Not much left for anybody after the war was there? I get so cross when young people now moan about things and talk as if all we have just dropped into our laps. Not only was our country bombed to bits and there was a huge lack of everything but we were paying back war loans from America and helping Germany get back on her feet.

To hear young people talk now you would think that living in filth is their only option at times, we lived in a Peckham slum and my gran and all the other neighbours cleaned their door steps and pavement outside their homes every day (not Sundays) and homes were shabby and cold, my own kids woke up to indoor ice in the 80's. They had coats on the bed and hand me downs, life was hard.

What saved so many of us was libraries where we could better ourselves, make our own entertainment and learn how to do things that needed doing. It breaks my heart to think of libraries closing. Radio was (and is) fabulous and often better than the telly, people were more musical and generally talented I think.

I don't miss chilblains, or hand me downs or the aunts shouting 'we've come slumming' when they visited........but I miss the markets and the way that people just got on with things. All this bloody counselling to support people through trivial crises, when did that become normal?

There were lots of people in the same boat but we were all facing forward then and trying to improve, and by and large we did.

I grew up in a new three bedroomed council house in the fifties. We had a coal fire in the living room. The rest of the house was arctic in the winter. Dad was a civil servant so we weren't poor. Mum stayed at home. Dad grew all our vegetables, and mum was a good cook. She knitted our sweaters, hats and socks. Our social life was all around the church. There was a morning service, and Sunday school in the afternoon. Then Brownies one evening a week. When I reached sixteen I stopped going to church. I'd had my fill of it. I knew plenty of poor children. My friend was one of nine children. Her dad was away at sea, and her mum was hopeless. She didn't clean the house or cook for the kids. I don't know how they survived, but I think the eldest became a doctor.

A couple of recent posts have mentioned getting coal from the river bank and gasworks. Of course coal was all important when we had just the one fire to keep us warm. When my dad was a miner ours was plentiful, tipped into the shared backyards free from the local pit, then it had to be shovelled into the coal sheds. The fittest would do this for the retired folk. When my dad left the pit I used to go with him to scrape sea coal from the beach with tools he'd made from an old broom handle. We'd to sort through it for stones, dry it out, and pack it into newspaper cones. Then you'd be sitting by the fire getting those corned beef legs when a red hot mussel shell would skim past your ear like a bullet

I think we as children had much more in common with our grandparents than we do with our own offspring.

In 1948 my dad was a local chemist and optician and mum worked for him and was a qualified chiropodist. We lived downstairs in my godmother's mother's house and every night I had to go up to say goodnight to "Auntie Morris". When the owner of the Chemist died, we moved into the house adjoining the shop. We were comfortably off, never lacked for anything. In fact, the first time I experienced poverty was after my first marriage, when ex wwouldn't hold down a job and was a hopeless gambler and my situation hasn't ever really improved because of DH's serious ill-health.

Totally poor! 1947 Born in Leeds but moved to London when I was 7 as my dad was a Londoner. Me memory is that my mum didn't want to move away from her family .... But we went.

To a vile 2 bed council house (from a pleasant 3 bed council house)

I can't say we were 'working class' since my father rarely worked apart from as a professional gambler!!!!

So basically we had very little as children. A rather miserable childhood. Christmas with a satsuma and chocolate & nuts in an old army sock was a real treat.

I'm saying no more about it ...... Apart from what doesn't kill you really does make you stronger!!! Both my sister and I passed the 11+ got places into the best grammar school in the area, received excellent educations, university etc and on to successful careers.

I am now the most extravagant person in the world and love spending my hard earned money!!!

I found nothing enjoyable about being cold hungry no toys & constant wet feet since my shoes let in water!!!

But congratulations to my dear mother who somehow managed and lived until she was 96!!! She deserved more.

God Bless everyone

Although we had the tin bath and the outside toilet (at one stage the earth closet with two holes for sitting on), ice on the inside of the windows (and chilblains to go with them), and very few luxuries, I didn't think I was poor then and don't now. Everyone I knew was at the same level, apart from two "rich" friends, the teacher's daughter and one who lived in a detached house with its own grounds. They were both subject to so many rules and restrictions that didn't apply to the rest of us that we urchins pitied them! We could all run in a pack, climbing trees and roaming the countryside till it got dark and our mothers called us in (I always charged through the door before the second call as my mother had the loudest, most piercing shout in the neighbourhood ). I never wanted for the essentials, and we had an annual holiday at a B & B in Blackpool or Morecambe. We had plenty of good food and a new outfit at Whitsuntide. An endless supply of books from the library and toys at Christmas. I remember one very poor family in our village who my mum used to help out. Six or seven children and dad was known to be a drinker. When he died their mum remarried and things improved for them overnight.

I was born Christmas 1943 living in rooms in a divided Georgian town house in London, we were all poor but because a war was on it was accepted. My father did not return until about 1946 he not only was away fighting but when he returned looked after German submariner POWs at Nuneham Courtenay preserving the film evidence for the war trials. Lighting was gas and the complete terrace opposite was bombed ruins, we had enough to eat, clothing was on ration so we all had to make do. In the appalling winter of 1946, if you could make it to the Battersea Gasworks you could carry away a cwt of coke, no cars no petrol, so my Mum borrowed a big old pram, we walked there and good on her we waited hours in the huge queue and she and I pushed that coke back. She worked too my nan looked after me and cousin Ann when she returned from her early morning job. Because of her good management by 1948 we had a car and had holidays at holiday camps, the Brightling Sea one on the Isle of Wight is still there. Clothing had to be utilised fully with Liberty Bidices under dresses, cross your body woollen scarves over your coats to keep you warm, a hot brick wrapped in your bed. Yes everyone was hard up but like today there are women now who are good managers. We were rather a skinny lot but fit. Hope I have not bored. Happy Christmas everyone

I lived in the East End of London,in the 1950's, and grew up in a Victorian house with an outside toilet, and no heating or hot water system - just one coal fire in the living room. My Dad installed a bath in the boxroom which we filled with a pail of water from an electrically heated tank next to the bath. We were probably considered rich in that we had a bath, albeit one that had to be filled manually, and the water ran out of the plughole and down the drain outside. My parents never had a holiday, and money was so tight; I remember my mother sobbing when she lost her purse one day as that was it - there was no money tucked away anywhere else to buy food. My children were amazed when I told them that we had no car, no phone, no fridge, freezer, washing machine or TV, and I wore the cast off clothes of a older relative for many years. However, as everyone else lived the same kind of life and I was well fed, well dressed (thanks to my cousin) and looked after, I never did feel any sense of deprivation. 'What you've never had' etc. What it has done for me is made me so grateful and pleased with everything I have had since; as a Baby Boomer I know that my lucky and blessed generation had a life that represented the zenith of the 20th Century, and our good fortune will likely never be seen again for any following generations.

Three days before Christmas 1946 I was born in a rented flat in east London, my mother was 46 years old and I had four brothers and a sister. I was a twin and at three weeks old my twin sister was so poorly my mum sent for the nurse who agreed to ask the doctor to call. He didn't come until the evening and by then my sister had pneumonia and died. We moved to a council house when I was five, coal fire in the living room coal stove in the dining room luxury. We never seemed poor partly because my older brothers worked and handed all their wages to mum, we went on holiday each year my dad put a pound away each week for that, we always went to a b&b in Ramsgate, when we went in at night we each took a candle up to bed from the table by the door there was no electricity and once in our rooms dad lit the gas lights.
We had to leave the house after breakfast and not come back till evening, so lots of days were spent in a shelter while it rained outside but we always had new colouring books and pencils, when we could go on the beach dad would get hot meat pies from Rooks. (half a one each, half an apple each and a big urn of tea and bring it onto the beach for lunch, my parents never had any lunch. and I realise now they couldn't afford it. We always had coal because my brother used to get it from the river where the barges dropped it, to supplement the coal/coke mixture my mum bought from the coal man. My brothers also used to shoot rabbits and pigeons at Temple Mills which is the Olympic Stadium now so we had pigeon A LOT! My mother used to pluck and gut everything herself, we had pigeon pie, pigeon stew, roast pigeon and once I even had pigeon in my school lunch box. I never eat pigeon now!!!

I think a lot of us were poor, but we only realise it now when we compare what we have with what we had.

We were just to young to realise it.

I thought I was poor, but I now look back and see photos of the time and TV programmes and I was most certainly wasn't
I went to a private convent school, lived in a 5 bedroom house ( though a bit shabby compared to some of my friends. We always had a fabulous Christmas with plenty of food & presents.
The reason most likely was I always had hand me down clothes ( I loved it as I had far more clothes than my two older sisters). Some of my friends were only children so had more expensive presents (I had 3 siblings ). As it was normal in those days, my mum made food go a long way and things like that.
I am annoyed with mysely of how naive I was, it's a shame my parents never showed me how the poor were really deprived with no toilets of hot water, basic requirements for living. I am thankful that people in this country don't have to live like that and get basic provisions etc.
To make up for this, I am hoping to help the homeless, when I retire next year.

TwiceAsNice I was only saying the other day that my son who is now 41 used to be off on his bike with his friends for hours when he was junior school age. My grandson aged 8 lives less than 5 minutes walk from a play area with no roads to cross but has never been there without an adult. I do understand why though.

I remember queuing to use the public telephone and if you walked passed one and it was ringing you answered it. If they asked you to go and tell mrs smith at number 3 such n such road, and tell her that they'd ring back in 15 minutes with news you'd do it! Remember the greasy mark left by my dad on the back of the chair from his brylcreamed head. Almost everyone smoked, even our G.P! Being given syrup of figs every Sunday. (What on earth was that about I wouldn't think we'd be constipated with all that fresh veg) playing two balls against a wall. I was really good and can still remember all the rhymes we sang. You just never see this anymore.

We moved to a brand new council house when I was 4 which meant we had an indoor bathroom but I remember my nannas house at the same time with an outside toilet and a tin bath. We had a coal fire in the living room and a paraffin heater in the kitchen, a man came round the door and sold us the paraffin every week. There was ice on the inside of the bedroom windows and freezing cold Lino on the bedroom floors, when I was a teenager we had carpet a real luxury. My mother had a twin tub washing machine and she would stand to do the washing and I helped my nanna do the washing in the back yard in a boiler with a lit fire underneath and a mangle. My dad was always in work but did a variety of jobs and as a treat he would take me to the corner shop on a Friday when he got his wages and I had a bar of five boys chocolate or a raspberry ruffle bar ( anybody remember those?) . My grandfather worked in the steel works and had more money and and we had nice presents from my grandparents at birthdays and Christmas because of that but I remember my dad made toys for us. We rented a television from Rediffusion and I had my first holiday to Weymouth when I was 11 and my dad saved and bought a car when I was 12. Before that it took an hour and 2 buses to visit my other Nana I remember standing freezing cold at the bus stop because there was always a gap before the second bus came. We always had enough food but not many treats although we sometimes had tinned peaches and ideal milk for Saturday tea which I loved but you always had to eat two pieces of bread and butter before you were allowed it. I walked to school by myself from age 7 a 20 minute walk four times a day because you came home for dinner. My grandchildren are 7 they don't go to the end of the road by themselves. At 9 or 10 me and my cousin would play out all day and nobody worried about us we would be miles away. I remember being very independent as a child . My mother had mental health issues and was often angry my father was very placid and instilled in me a love of reading his books were his one luxury and birthday money was always encouraged to be spent on books you could get a hard back book for half a crown . Some of my childhood was not good but most of your friends families were the same it was all normal as far as we were concerned.

I don't think all children were beaten and I feel so sorry for anyone who was.
I never had a smack as a child.
I was either a good child or they were very tolerant (or I never got caught!).

Of course, by 1957 we'd never had it so good according to Harold Macmillan

I mentioned this thread to a friend who remembered that, as a child, when he had chilblains his mother would cover them with brown paper and then very closely wave a red hit poker slowly over them. It cured the itch apparently!

He then said, "And that is how I became a man my friend". It's how he tells 'em!

My parents bought our very small semi (bathroom downstairs, toilet separate outside) just pre WW2 with a 100% mortgage from the Council. The Council was still offering mortgages when my DB bought his house in the early 1960s.

It wasn't a council house (friends lived in council houses which in fact were bigger) but privately built.

I think we must have been what is now termed 'Just about Managing'.
My mother worked part-time from when I was little which must have helped. Dad used to work on Saturday mornings too and had two ports of call on his way home - a quick pint in the pub (his weekly treat) and a visit to the market to stock up on fruit and veg which he brought home in the basket on the front of his bike. Sometimes he would bring a paper bag of large mushrooms home - a real treat!
We all had bikes and got around on our bikes or caught the frequent buses.