1940s Mining Life

Next to the oven was the fireplace, which warmed the kitchen and most importantly was where the family had their bath, usually every Friday night. The tin bath went in front of the fire and it was the miner's job to bring the bath in from outside in the yard. Children warmed up jugs of water on the range to fill the bath. The youngest child went in the bath first. The woman used to have her bath with a clothes horse around and a sheet draped over for modesty.

The miner in the family generally had a bath when he got home at the end of his shift. In a family of miners, with father and sons, bathing was usually in age order, with the oldest first.