The Diary of Nathaniel Bryceson (Part 7)

[deb usa]

Found this ...it seems that Mrs Mitchell may have ordered too much coal:

The winter of 1846, remarkable for extraordinary mildness
from: Journal of the Royal Statistical Society, Volume 12

at the same time in Ireland: 

The Irish Famine: The Winter of 1846 to 1847

http://www.wesleyjohnston.com/users/ireland/past/famine/whig_1846_1847.html

In the Spring of 1846, the people had planted even more potatoes than ever before to ensure that there was no repeat of the 1845 failure. However, in July the Relief Commission sent a report to England stating "I am sorry to state that... the prospect of the potato crop this year is even more distressing than last year- that the disease has appeared earlier and its ravages are more extensive" [2]. As it was to turn out, the crop of Autumn [Fall] 1846 had failed completely across the island.

I wonder if Nat read anything about the poor, starving Irish people?

deb

[Ruskie]

Both my parents, and my grandparents had coal bunkers outside in the backgardens, but these were semi detached houses, not temenant buildings. 

Terraces with a yard also had them - wasn't there a hole in the back wall for the coal to be put through? The outhouse was there too. 

I wonder about the toilet and personal and clothes washing facilities in these multiple occupancy dwellings. All communal I expect.  And chamber pots for calls of nature during the night .... possibly emptying them into public drains each morning?

I do admit to a hankering for many aspects of the past but there are a few comforts I would not like to do without.

I suppose there would be buckets of coal kept indoors which would last for a certain amount of time, then they would just fetch more from downstairs. As a lot of the tennants of Richmond Buildings just rented rooms surely there wouldn't be a seperate 'bunker' for each tennant to store their coal. I can't see that the tennants would share the ton of coal - they couldn't be trusted to take the correct amount.

I can't imagine how large a ton of coal would be. 

[drykid]

Found this ...it seems that Mrs Mitchell may have ordered too much coal:

The winter of 1846, remarkable for extraordinary mildness
from: Journal of the Royal Statistical Society, Volume 12

Actually it was probably a wise buy - I think the mild winter referred to there is the one just gone in terms of Nat's diary.  And in fact Nat made at least one mention earlier in the diary to the exceptionally mild winter, which backs that up.

If you look at this table, you can see that while 1846 was a far milder Winter than 1847, the notes at the top make it clear that 1846 on that table refers to the year that January falls in when it comes to discussing winter temps.  (I know the data is for Central England not London, but I'm guessing when you average it out over a whole season then the trends will be similar.)

[avm228]

I wonder about the toilet and personal and clothes washing facilities in these multiple occupancy dwellings. All communal I expect.  And chamber pots for calls of nature during the night .... possibly emptying them into public drains each morning?

I do admit to a hankering for many aspects of the past but there are a few comforts I would not like to do without.

You might stop hankering when you scroll down to the second half of this page: http://www.makingthemodernworld.org.uk/stories/the_industrial_town/06.ST.02/?scene=3

 

[snowyw]

OOoer!  That's pretty ghastly!

[Siamese Girl]

It was a miracle anyone survived living in London - I still keep thinking of Nat swimming quite happily in the Thames 

Carole

[Ruskie]

I wonder about the toilet and personal and clothes washing facilities in these multiple occupancy dwellings. All communal I expect.  And chamber pots for calls of nature during the night .... possibly emptying them into public drains each morning?

I do admit to a hankering for many aspects of the past but there are a few comforts I would not like to do without.

You might stop hankering when you scroll down to the second half of this page: http://www.makingthemodernworld.org.uk/stories/the_industrial_town/06.ST.02/?scene=3

 

Paragraph 2 sounds like the sort of thing that is happening today. 

No, I'm still hankering, but I didn't say I was hankering to be an inner city dweller. I see myself more in an upper class country estate kind of way.  Don't we all many of us?

[Siamese Girl]

I'm with you Ruskie - although I'd like to have been born a little earlier - around 1750 would be fine. I honestly think the only thing I'd really miss would be antibiotics. My Dad spent the first 20 years of his life in the 1920s/30s on the family's farm with no electricity, water drawn from the well which had "little things" swimming in it and the loo was a bucket system which had to be emptied onto the farm's dung heap but he survived perfectly well. Although they were quite modern in other ways, as his mother drove a car and used to go into town to do a main shop once a week.

Carole

[Ruskie]

Sort of on the same subject but a little off topic ... today my sister was teling me about a guy who suffered from many immune disorders, took himself off to Africa to run around in animal poo so he'd catch worms, and now he is cured. He's now selling 'patches' which he claims will do the same thing. Not sure I believe anyone who decides to sell their story and their product, but I still think there may be some truth in this. Maybe swimming in the filthy old Thames did Nathaniel a lot of good. He lived to a fair age. 

Your Dad had a well? That's luxury!  My Dad lived in a tent with a dirt floor, and his mother cooked outside over an open fire.

There are quite a few mod cons I'd miss, but there is an awful lot I would love about living in earlier times ...  I have a bit of a soft spot for all things Medieval though I'm not sure I'd cope too well living that far back.