168

Houses and homes in Tredegar

during the 19th century

A Key Stage 2

Educational Resource Pack

Part 8—A Woman’s Story &

Household spending from 1841

169

A day in the life of Aunt Lizzie by George Jenkins

Lizzie was 10 years old when her youngest brother, Fred, was born in 1879. Her two eld-

est sisters, Mary and Fanny, were already living away from home as house servants—‘in

domestic service’. Lizzie’s two elder brothers, Tom and Bill, worked in the coal mine

with their father Tom (Tom the Shoer—who looked after pit ponies). Lizzie’s two younger

brothers were Ted, aged 3, and Jack aged 2. A fortnight after the arrival of baby Fred,

Lizzie’s mother died. She was in her 40th year.

Lizzie’s unmarried aunt took

care of Fred until his 5th year

but she lived in the next valley.

So Lizzie left school and, for the

next 14 years, acted as house-

keeper and mother. It was a 2-

storey, 2-bedroom, terraced

house with an outside toilet, no

hot water system, no electricity,

no light of any kind in the up-

stairs rooms, and all cooking

was carried out over the open

hearth fire and oven.

170

Lizzie’s father and 2

elder brothers would rise

at 5.30 a.m. Their first

task being to clear the

previous day's ashes,

light the fire, boil water

for morning tea and sit

down to a modest

breakfast before leaving

for the mine.

As they left, Lizzie would

get up, wash and dress in

the one living room, clear

the breakfast dishes,

take out a pastry board from the pantry and make 6 loaves of bread which her younger

brothers would take to the public bake-house on their way to school.

Lizzie would call them from their deep sleep and they would come down in their Welsh

flannel night shirts, wash in a bowl on the same table and dress ready for school. As

they left, carrying the loaves of bread, she would tend the fire on which a heavy iron

boiler filled with water was placed, for Monday was washday.

171

Lizzie would carry in a metal tub from an outside

shed, place it on the stone floor in front of the fire

and pour in the boiling water.

She would bring clothes for washing downstairs,

separating very dirty working clothes from those

less soiled, putting the latter in the tub and

agitating them with a washing dolly until they were

clean.

Rinsed in clean water, these were squeezed

through a mangle before being hung on the

back-garden clothes line.

Very dirty clothes required harsher treatment.

Kneeling over the bath she would rub them

vigorously on the washboard, using strong carbolic soap. Scrubbed, rinsed and

mangled, these would then join others on the line.

This was a whole morning of very hard labour and it was a rush to get it completed

before Fred, Jack and Ted came home briefly from school - for there were no school

dinners. After making a simple meal of bread, butter and jam, for herself and younger

brothers, her next task was shopping, for in times long before fridge or supermarket,

perishable goods had to be bought daily.

172

Billie Hughes the grocer's shop was just across

the road. Behind the polished wooden counter

were mountains of butter on white china slabs,

sacks of sugar, tea, rice, huge sides of bacon

alongside the cutting machines, and bins of

currants, raisins, and other provisions.

White-aproned Dai George would carefully

weigh out each item, scooping them into paper

bags, writing down the cost on an oddment of

greaseproof paper.

Back home, Lizzie would hurry to prepare the

meal.

From the garden shed, she would collect vege-

tables that her Father had grown, peeling them

before placing into a saucepan on the hearth

and placing the meat in the oven to roast.

Sometimes she made Welsh Cakes cooked on

an iron bake-stone, which her Father had made

when apprenticed to a blacksmith.

173

All too soon she knew

her younger brothers

would be rushing in

from school followed

by her father and

elder brothers, Tom

and Bill.

They would be

smothered in coal

dust, their faces

black, their clothes

full of the dirt of the

mine where they had

spent the last nine or

ten hours.

Lizzie’s first duty was to put the boiler on the fire, making sure there was plenty of hot

water, and bring in the tub in which she done the day's washing, and place it on the

floor. The bathing ritual would never change.

Firstly, father would strip to the waist, kneel on the floor and bending over the tub, thor-

oughly wash his face and upper body.

174

Lizzie would then wash his back and retire

as her father, firstly removing his working

trousers, would sit in the bath in front of the

blazing fire and wash the rest of his body.

He would then stand up, towel himself

vigorously and dress in his comfortable

everyday clothes.

The tub would be emptied, refilled with

clean water and Tom the eldest would

repeat the process, and he would be

followed by his brother Bill. Only when this

had been completed and the tub taken out

to the shed could a clean white linen cloth

be placed on the table.

Around it would sit father, Lizzie, Tom, Bill,

Ted, Jack and Fred. Before starting the

meal Father would say Grace and pray to

God to guide and protect Mary and Fanny,

away in service, and his dear wife Mary

whom he greatly missed.

175

They ate their meal in silence for it was a time when

"children were to be seen and not heard."

There were always stockings to be darned and clothes to be

repaired, buttons to be sewn on and the fire to be tended.

As the clock struck 9, she and her brothers, after washing in

a bowl in the living room, would put on their night shirts,

light their candles and climb the stairs to bed, except Lizzie

who slept in the parlour on a makeshift bed.

Monday, the week’s washday, was particularly busy but

there was little peace during the rest of the week.

Each room had to be swept and dusted in turn, the floor

rugs beaten on the outside line to get rid of dust and dirt.

There were paths to be swept, chickens to feed and brass

ornaments to be polished.

And each day including Saturday, there was the bath ritual -

the boiling of water, bringing in the fuel from the coal house,

chopping sticks for the next day's fire and the non-stop

cooking for a family of seven, her young brothers to be

cared for.

176

Yet life was not all hard

work, much of it based

on chapel - not merely

worship and Sunday

School where she

continued her neglected

education, but also

occasional outings and

socials, regular choir

practice and hymns

around the piano on

Sunday evenings, trips

to visit relatives, as well

as picnics. There were

special celebrations at Christmas, Easter and Whitsun, modest by today's standards,

but highlights then.

In later years, Lizzie’s father, ailing from pneumoconiosis—the disease that affects coal

miner’s lungs after working many years underground—also had to be cared for. Aged

just 22 when her father died, Lizzie then married a miner, going to live in a house little

different from her own and taking her youngest brother Fred with her.

177

How were workers’ wages spent in 1841?

In old money, there were 12 pence(d) to one shilling(s). There were 20

shillings in a pound(l). So there were 240 old pence(d) in an old pound!

In old weights, there were 16 ounces(ozs) to one pound(lb) in weight!

178

In old money, there were 12 pence(d) to one shilling(s). There were 20

shillings in a pound(l). So there were 240 old pence(d) in an old pound!

In old weights, there were 16 ounces(ozs) to one pound(lb) in weight!

179

180