Mal's Memories (From Penarth Times)

Mal's Memories

DO you remember coal fires?

I mean real fires that were the only source of heat in a house before central heating became commonplace.

In winter, particularly, they were an essential part of the daily routine, and usually the first task on waking was for someone to light the fire.

It was not a two-minute job.

First of all the old ashes had to be raked out from the grate, usually to be deposited in the garden as a means of improving the soil.

Then newspaper, firewood and the coal had to be properly laid before the match was struck and hopefully it all ignited.

If it did not get going properly one solution was to'draw' it by placing a sheet of newspaper over the front of the entire hearth, so creating a chimney draught.

Often this resulted in the newspaper catching fire and being sucked up the flue.

One of the dangers of this procedure was that soot could catch alight, causing a chimney fire.

It was essential that the chimney be cleaned out regularly, and this was the job of the chimney sweep, with his brush and extending poles.

Other unpopular tasks included black-leading the grate, a really messy job, required to keep everything looking ship-shape.

And, of course, fetching in the coal in the big old scuttle, from the outside coal shed, filled on a regular basis by the coalman carrying the heavy sacks from his battered old lorry, after he had loaded up from the coal sidings at the local station.

But there was nothing quite like sitting in front of a roaring fire at night, toasting slices of bread on the special long fork, and spreading on dollops of home-made butter and jam.

I promise you, it never tasted so good.