Village Lighting by Gas & Oil.

Village Lighting by Gas & Oil.

******************************

Yes, seventy years ago this was a common sight in Cookham, as by the 1930's only certain parts of the village had been hooked up to the electric grid, and the outlying properties were still very much reliant on gas and oil for Cooking and lighting. There was a business located in Cordwallis Road in Maidenhead that use to come around on a weekly basis with what was what I would call a Mobile Hardware Store. He had two large saddle tanks under the floor in which he carried bulk Parafin, better known as Kerosene to my North American readers. He also carried Gas and Oil Lamp mantles, spares, such as wicks for various makes of lamps and heaters like the Valor Oil Stove.

There was also a good selection of household cleaning materials for floors and furniture plus all your washday needs in soaps and items like Robin Starch and Reckitts Blue.

The oil and gas mantles were quite stiff with a wax coating which had to be burnt off once installed then they would become very fragile as they would break very easily if touched.

The Aladdin table lamp was the most common of the oil lamps in use, as a matter of fact they were in use in the workers houses around the farm until the middle of the war when the farm became electrified.

Quite a few homes in the village used the Valor Oil Stove the heat their homes, especially in their upstairs bedrooms. All of this was in use seventy years ago.