Ice on the insides of windows growing up

[candlemasbells]

Inspired by the other threads about bath water, loo breaks and drinks, did you grow up with ice on the inside of the windows in winter?
We lived for many years in an old house with no central heating and in the winter beautiful patterns would form in ice on the insides of the windows. I often hear people of my parents generation or older reminiscing about cold winters and ice on the insides of windows and they don’t believe that someone my age (born in the 1980s) would have experienced it.
We were in no way neglected growing up, we were given hot water bottles, plenty of duvets/blankets/sleeping bags to keep warm. In the depths of winter we would often sleep in a downstairs room which had a fire.
Theres a question asked on the census about the type of central heating your house has.

We had ice on the inside of the windows quite often as a child. Single glazed windows with rotten frames. There was central heating, but the bedroom radiators were all switched off.

Yes in the seventies. My great grandma lived with us. She was 90 but had been a servant in a big house when she was younger and she always, to the day before she died, got up at 5am to light the fire (which was gas, bless her, but she insisted that it was her job!)

yes, 1980s,
my parents used to buy and do up ruins. We lived in a converted coach house with rubbish/no heating and had ice on windows. I vividly remember my bed with 2 duvets and a huge double blanket tucked in over the top. I used to jump out, turn on the fan heater and jump back in to bed.
We had 2 kittens and they slept on my bed,on cold nights they curled up on top of my head.

Then as a student I had 2 houses with no heating, both had gas fire, both th esame 2 duvets and blankets at night.

Of course, as soon as they go the heating fitted, they sold up and bought another ruin...

Yep, no central heating in our (council) house til I was in my teens so late 80's/early 90's.

Yes, we had this in the 70's. Bad fitting windows that used to rattle when the wind blew and no central heating.

We moved into a 1930s semi in the mid 70s. It had central heating but not double glazing. I had the outside corner bedroom, facing north and often had ice on the inside of my window in the winter. The other rooms were fine!

My student house in the late 80s didn't have central heating but I don't remember it happening there - it was in the south west though which was warmer. WE did have a lot of mould though, and snail trails up the (indoor) staircase. Happy days

I remember those cold days. I got chilblains every year. I wasn't provided with extra blankets and whatnot though. I just used to sleep in clothes.

We had this. We moved into a house in 1978 and my bedroom window got ice on the inside in winter. After a couple of years Mum and Dad got central heating put in and that seemed to stop it happening.

We used to get ice on the inside of the windows in our Chicago apartment and we lived there until about a year ago. It was actually heated very well via central air and we never let it get below about 17 degrees Celsius. I think it was the original Victorian single glazing combined with the arctic temperatures outside that caused it. I used to scrape it off with a credit card every morning. Fun times!

Yes, born 1981 and we had ice inside. One coal fire downstairs and one of those two-bar portable heaters in the bathroom, which smelt like burning dust when you turned it on.

Yes ice on the inside of the windows at home. We had central heating but it was ancient and inefficient. We had plen

Ice on the inside of the windows at boarding school.

This was 1990s.

Yep, old detached farmhouse in the 1980s. Frost ferns on the windows, no CH, flat sheets and wool blankets. Never had a duvet, double glazing or heating till I went to university.

I still like a cold bedroom, mind, dislike putting the heating on (use it minimally to prevent damp and keep DCs comfortable) and am a huge fan of wool.

Yes, born mid 60s, so memories are from the 70s mostly.
No central heating, no double glazing, so ice inside the windows when it was really cold, and condensation/pools of water on the sills when it was slightly less cold. Inevitably many of the windows were rotten and I can remember poking the soft wood with macabre fascination. There was a grotty old towel with which you were expected to mop up the water each morning.
The only heat was an electric fire in the lounge, and a couple of fan heaters for the bedrooms but their usage was strictly rationed - they were intended to 'take the chill off' for ten minutes rather than be left on to properly warm the room. I remember revising for my mocks wearing gloves and a coat and struggling to write as I was shivering.
Similarly hot water was rationed. The immersion heater was switched on at specific times and woe betide you if you forgot to switch it off. Deep baths which used up all the water were usually forbidden as they were deemed too expensive. My parents had a real fear of the electricity bill which wasn't unreasonable at the time as if IIRC there wasn't the competition between providers that there is today so you were stuck with whatever they wanted to charge.
Being cold and uncomfortable often is an abiding memory from growing up. I felt incredibly envious of friends and family whose homes felt warm as soon as you stepped in the door - instead of waiting for the electric fire to do its thing. Unless you sat right in front of it to get properly warm, it didn't really heat the whole room properly anyway so you'd be told off for blocking it if you sat too close.

I had this growing up in the 1970s & 1980s!
Single glazed windows, inefficient coal-fired central heating, house built in 1960s so not old by any standards. The warmest rooms were the kitchen - containing the boiler - and the sitting room - log fire!
I do remember having to leave towels on the wooden internal window sills to mop up all the water when the ice melted else there would be puddles all day.
The towels would be wrung out in the bath when we all got home & dried in the kitchen next to the boiler overnight.
It wasn't until 1988 that things changed.
Mains drainage was installed into the village rather than septic tanks.
The Great Storm of 1987 had also blown the roof off the utility room & garage so structural work had to be done to the house.
Double glazing & a very efficient oil-fuelled heating system heated the house up beautifully! All the wooden internal window sills had to be replaced as they'd rotted due to the melted ice.
Complete luxury!!

Growing up my c**t of a father would only allow the heating on for 2 hours a day. An hour in the morning and again in the evening. Baths were a hand height of lukewarm water shared between myself and my siblings
Apparently he grew up in a house that only had a fire in the living room, central heating was a new fangled thing, and as kids we were spoilt. A duvet (thin one) was seen as more than sufficient.
Ice on windows and breath being seen in the air was de rigeur when we were younger. Being chilled to the marrow definitely wasnt a cliche for me growing up. It was fucking miserable.

I've been NC with the prick for 25 years, we all have a selection of duvets in all thicknesses, the heating stays on constantly on 21 degrees and I still sleep with a fluffy blanket even if its roastingly hot outside. And for my birthday last year DH got a tank bath installed in the bathroom. Which I fill to the top. Every night.

Yes, but I’m talking 50s/60s, before we had central heating - I was 14 then and the luxury of it was unbelievable for quite a while.

Before that I still remember my poor DF going out into the freezing cold first thing, to get coke for the solid fuel boiler that was in the breakfast room - the only room in the house that was always warm.

Much of the family conversation pre central heating - not just in my family either - consisted of 3 words - SHUT THAT DOOR!!

Oh yes. I was born in the mid 80s and grew up in a big Victorian house which translates to being draughty, impossible to heat because of the height of the ceilings, and bloody cold!

My bedroom did have a (small) radiator in it but it was single glazed, in the eaves (lots of outside walls) and North facing. So we had condensation turning to ice inside the windows when it got really cold.

I got a clock with the room temperature on it for Christmas one year. I set it up, and on Boxing Day morning went down to DM and told her that it was 7 degrees in my room, which was only 2 degrees warmer than a fridge. She offered me another blanket 😁

We had this growing up in Ireland in the 70's. The net curtains would be stuck to the windows of my bedroom in the morning .I loved peeling them off. I can still hear my father yelling 'Shut the Doors' if we left the room as only the kitchen and sitting room were heated and everywhere else was freezing.Mind you not much has changed in that respect , they still see heating as some sort of luxury .I can't cope with that sort of cold and discomfort anymore though.

Yes, we did. We lived in a council house (where my mum still lives) and it was the mid-70's before we had central heating installed by the council. We used to have a gas fire in the living room and a paraffin heater to warm the kitchen. My dad used to go and put the heater on the landing with the bedroom doors open to warm upstairs before we went to bed.

Mum and dad didn't put the heating on too much as we didn't have much money and they were conscious of cost. My mum still limits the amount of time she has her heating on for the same reason. I have to say, I don't remember us having so many colds when we were young. Perhaps the cold made us more hardy!

By the way, does anyone remember the advert - I think it was British Gas - which went 'is it the Baltic in your bathroom and Siberia in your slippers '?

My mum talks about being sent upstairs each evening to turn on all the electric blankets.

Oh yes, I remember ice on the inside of windows so well.
Born in the 60's, our first house didn't even have a bathroom & had an outside loo, the weekly bath was in a tin bath in front of the fire.
My DM was ironing one day standing next to me & my DSis in the tin bath, when I tugged on the lead & pulled the iron into the bath
Luckily we weren't electrocuted I just had a badly burnt arm.
Lived in a council house in 70s, only heating was a small open fire in the living room.
We were allowed a paraffin heater in the bathroom for a quick bath.
Went to bed fully clothed, including jumpers, hat & gloves.
Regularly woke up with a burn blister on my ankle bone from a too hot hot-water bottle!
We perfected getting dressed in the morning, in bed, without ever being undressed, a long nightie was the easiest thing to get dressed under
I had bad bronchitis every winter.
Blimey this thread has brought it all back, i thought nothing of it at the time everyone I knew's house was just the same.
My DC complain they're cold if the house goes below 20degrees

I remember we had a stone hot water bottle. I remember the rubber ones starting to wear out and you'd get the small pieces of rubber coming out when you emptied it in the morning.

Yes, definitely had this! Had to get dressed very quickly as so cold, but then downstairs to a lovely sight of my Mum stirring hot porridge on the hob.

I did, I was born in the 80's. Parents tried to counter the cold with electric blankets. Ghastly things, and I will never forget how cold a trip to the loo was with no central heating either. I used to have to dress ridiculously at home just to stay warm, offend had gloves on the minute I woke up.

Heating is now usually on full whack in my home. No 24/7 shivering for me thanks. I hated it and feel sorry for anyone else that might have to go cold.

Born in the 70s and grew up with ice on the inside of the windows. Miserable.