General Chat

My Mum often talks about the good old days of the tin bath and how it was put in front of the fire on a sunday night for all to bathe in.My gran who passed away eight years ago used to put the chamber pot under the bed every night incase she needed the loo in the night even though there was a perfectly good toilet downstairs and if we stayed with her as children,she would tell us that the po was under the bed! God,I miss her!

what lovely memories you all have, i feel nostalgic, i to remember the newspaper squares, and the hard tissue in a box especially for visitors. He He, like you have all said the new generations don't know how lucky they are, and it did us no harm. Also tracing your trees makes you think what are relatives didn't have and how they coped. thankyou for your lovely replies sandra

i have never used a tinbath as im too young but heard my nan talk baout it having one on a sunday night ,but while i was living in england (which was up untill last june) a house on the end our block which was very scruffy we were walking past and heard this shouting looked through the gate (nosey arent we) to our horror they were in the bath outside and it was winter !!!!!! ,when i told one of the mums at school they said yes they have no bathroom the council is going to put one in for them well that was about 2 yrs ago and they still live in the scruffy house with no bathroom

remember the tin bath very well, my dad was a miner and we kids had to wait our turn. toilet was down the street so had to take a candle and the key was on half a tree trunk so we would not lose it. those were the days.... whistling as there was no lock on the door - difficult when straining.

i saw one in a museum once!!!!! he he!!

Sandra remember it well and the outside loo.When we got a bit older about ten or so we could go to the public washbaths and me, my mam and my sister could get in a huge bath that had running hot and cold water,it was in a little cubicle.My dadand two brothers had to go another day when it was males only. No bubble baths or bath salts etc ,just fairy washing soap for hair as well.

Hi Sandra, I`m afraid I remember them only too well, every Sunday morning, bath time, me and my brother, one after the other, and then visit to aunt Jennies.

Only too well! I was born in 1950 and every week the tin bath used to be hauled up two flights of stairs from the garden into our living room. We shared a toilet with another family who lived downstairs in the same London (Clerkenwell) house. Mum used to fill it from boiling kettles. My sister and I were first in, then Mum. Dad was the last one in because he was a coalman and used to leave coal dust all round the edge of the thing! The rest of the week we all washed down at the kitchen sink. My kids don't know how lucky they are....we have a bathroom with a shower and a separate shower room now just for them! I can also remember having a pot under the bed at night as the outside toilet was two flights down and out into the garden. And my nan used to sit and tear newspaper into squares, thread string through them and that was toilet paper! And all the "utility" furniture and ex-Army blankets on the beds. In winter Mum used to stand wooden coathangers in our beds to hold the blankets up and put hot water bottles in to warm them....and on top of the blankets we had to put our coats for extra warmth. Can't remember ever feeling deprived or poor though! Happy days indeed :-))) Cor...I don't half feel OLD now!!!!

I'm only 30 but I remember having a bath in the tin bath in front of the open fire in my Grandma's scullery. She had an indoor toilet next to the larder between the kitchen and scullery but no bathroom. At my Nan and Grandad's the council had put a bathroom in but they still kept the tin bath. There's some very cute pictures of my brother and I playing in it in the summer in the garden.

Hi Sandra I remember only too well the tin bath as i was a war baby!!! That is all we had in front of the fire on a saturday night ,all 4 of us children had to go in one after the other,some people dont how lucky they where ,there was no running hot water in our house it all had to be boiled on the range .And they call them the "Good old days i dont think so" Val from Kent

Yes, we also had the tin bath hung on a nail outside the backdoor. Always had to get in it on Sunday, when Songs of Praise was on the telly. Also had the grotty outside loo, full of spiders! Maggy

Yep, Sandra, I sure do remember our old tin bath in my childhood! Lancashire Pennines in a draughty old Victorian vicarage, much of it was totally uninhabitable because of the damp etc. The bathroom was really only usable in summer, and even then with an old single bar electric fire plugged in away from the plumbing! So my sister and I usd to have our baths during primary school years in the tin bath in front of the coal fire in the one usable all purpose living room. And very cosy it was too! Happy days.... Philip

Yes I remember the tin bath .we had an old fashioned fireplace with an oven on one side and a boiler on the other where the water for the bath was heated up The toilet was at the far end of the open back yard and we shared it with the 2 other houses Friday night was bathnight and also Syrup of figs night Our first house when we got married had no bath so we went to Mum in laws for one on Sundays Then Hubby put one in the kitchen which we filled from the Hot water heater that was over the kitchen sink Bren

oh yes and it was often mended with those tin hole repairers which scratched your bum.

Ye i remember that tin bath only to well hung up on the wall in the back yard every Sunday in it would come put in the kitchen with the gas cooker door open me first then mum then dad then mum would scrubb the back yard down with the water. Dad would use it twice a week as he used to work for a coal merchant Also the outside loo i painted that on the morning i got married in 1970 as dad wanted it to look nice if any one wanted to use it

My dear old Grandad had one for years and now it's stuck at the back of the shed. Julie (also from Maidstone, Kent)

I remember having a bath in the tin bath in front of the fire,,,and the loo was down the garden. Mondays was wash day and my mum would scrub the wooden seat in the loo,,,,if you couldnt wait until it was dry,,,it was yuck,,!!

Hello, I remember me, my brother and sister taking a bath in one at least every sunday night before school the next day. we kept it in the conservatory but called it a lean-to for some reason. we bathed in it by the fire for the purpose of keeping the water hot. the whole family would take it in turns. THE GOOD OLD DAY'S, UH.

I remember a tin bath hanging on the wall at the back of the house - we only ever washed the dog in it though.

although i was born 1961, due to circumstances we had to live in my nans cellar for months in 1969, and on a sunday night the tin bath would come out in front of a fire with an airer with the towels on to give you privacy, and the loo was in the back yard, so we would have to cross our legs in the middle of the night or use the po sandra