[WillowTheWhisp]

I hope you find someone who can help you out Michael. Why not start a new thread asking for information and maybe any recent photos of the area you are talking about? I'm from Accrington myself so don't know much about Brierfield I'm afraid.


I do remember long drop lavvies though. My Gran had one but I think our outdoor one had a chain. A friend of mine lived in a terraced block which was houses round 3 sides of a huge shared yard and there were outside toilets along the fourth side. It seemed miles away to go to the loo, especially at night or if it was raining. All the kids used to play together in the big yard though which was fun apart from the odd neighbour who complained if you went too close to their kitchen window. I think the houses were 2 up 2 down and the stairs went up from a corner of the back room and sort of curved round the wall like a semi-spiral.

My Gran never had electricity. Her lighting was gas mantles. She washed in a dolly tub with a posser and a scrubbing board and squeezed the water out of the clothes with a mangle. I remember being amazed that dolly blue made shirts whiter and she would starch the collars and cuffs with 'Robin' - I remember the little picture of the robin on that.

It was a great excitement when we had our back bedroom divided in two to create a bathroom with indoor toilet. We thought we were really posh. When we moved to Accrington, when I was 4, the house only had electricity and no gas to my mother's dismay and she had to buy what she referred to as "an electric gas oven". My Gran had a gas stove but also an oven in part of a big cast iron fire range which was black-leaded. There was a swing in and out thing to put the kettle on to boil over the fire and we always had 'proper' toast at her house done on a toasting fork over the fire.

It was freezing cold in winter as we never had fires upstairs so I was never very keen on getting out of bed apart from Christmas morning but I did like the lovely patterns Jack Frost made on the insides of the bedroom windows!