How on earth did they cope...

[Theyshallnotgrowold]

I've been researching my family tree and looking at the 1841 census got me thinking. The woman at home, seven kids under 10 crammed into two rooms, husband out all hours scraping a living. No accessible healthcare, heating, bathroom, electric, running water, modern appliances, convince food - the list goes on. I'm in awe of them.

In terms of rural hunger, Akenfield (the village described in the book of the same name) had many WWI recruits into the army who described for the first time in their lives having 3 meals a day. They grew a significant amount after joining the army.

This phrase usually means that the person was living off an inheritance, pension or other sum of money and could therefore support themselves without need of charity :)

The Classic Slum: Salford Life in the First Quarter of the Century by Robert Roberts is excellent. Well worth reading.

I’m early 60’s as well and remember living some of the things mentioned in the census in the opening post.

My point was that you didn’t have to go back to the 1841 census to have lived some of the things the OP mentioned.

It's not just infants who died early. In a cemetery near me, in the mid 19th century, there are many gravestones for teenagers, for adults in their 20s, 30s, 40s. I'd be fascinated to know the causes of death. It's only in the later 19th century that there are substantial numbers of graves for people in their 60s and 70s.

I have 2 photos taken of my ancestors, both taken outside their (miner's) house. One in their Sunday best and one in their usual clothes. There's a stark difference.

As a child in the 1960s I remember my sister’s schoolfriend lived in a house with no electricity, just gas lamps, next to London airport (later renamed Heathrow). The sheer incongruity of Concorde flying over her archaic home struck me even at the time.

The same as how people in third world countries cope now! By being grateful for what they do have and all pulling their weight.

I do realise that conditions for some were poor until relatively recently and that there are still people living in dire straits now, even in the UK. I used the 1841 census as an example because people back then would have been without all those things listed and many more.

My own father was born into a very poor mining community. The family shared a tin bath in front of the fire once a week - kids in first, my grandfather last. Other relatives lived through the Bag Muck Strike in Yorkshire - brutally evicted from their homes and left to camp out in early January with only the clothes on their backs.

I have a keen interest in Genealogy and history. The title of this thread was less of a question and more of a statement/ musing after doing some research.

I do think we have forgotten how recent some things are.

My parents were born in 1941 and 1942.
I still have school aged kids, so I am not that ancient.

There was no widows pension. So my Granny who was a widow with a 4 year old and a baby had to work. No benefits which applied to her.
Compulsory education was 1944, so they both JUST got that.

My mum had terrible ear infections as a young child.
pre anitbiotics. So warm oil poured in the ear to sooth.

Granny had an outside loo. No washing machine or freezer (I think they had a fridge but that may have come later.) Not sure my Mum's family had a fridge.
Mum remembers shopping every day for the days food.
Heating was open fires.
bath once a week and you al lwent in after each other. (but there was a btahroom)

These were not poor homes these were middle class homes.
We just forget how recent most stuff is.

Compulsory education was 1944, so they both JUST got that.

The 1944 Education Act introduced the 11 plus and Grammar school/secondary modern and Technical schools (whatever happened to them?) Up to the age of 15. School up to the age of 14 was compulsory before that.

School up to the age of 14 was compulsory before that.

I thought it was 1874 that schooling became compulsory

It's not just infants who died early.

It was the fact that if you made it to 5 years old then your chances of reaching adulthood (21 years back then) were much higher. Those dying before 5 brought the national age at death down considerably and why you can look at data with before 5 years and only deaths over 5 years to search data for death stats

I have a keen interest in Genealogy and history. The title of this thread was less of a question and more of a statement/ musing after doing some research

Same. I find it thought-provoking too. I've been digging a bit more into the life of my great-gran who was one of 11 children. Her father worked in the iron works, they lived on the iron works site. It must have been small and dirty and cramped.

So my 2x great gran was trying to raise 11 children in these conditions, must have been pregnant for a whole lot of those years. I wonder if she had happiness in her life? I hope she did. I hope she had moments of enjoying her babies and had time now and again to sit and feel the sunshine on her face.

My great gran went on to live in a slightly bigger house in a slightly better area, had 4 kids of her own then died aged only 44, we suspect of Huntington's. What a life.

I wonder what they would think of my life now.

@Rae36 Very well put, I feel the same.

I highly doubt it.

Usually it means some kind of savings or annuity or similar. At least that's what it has meant in our family.

My mum left school on her 14th birthday and started work. My dad was in ww2 at 21. Dhs dad liberated auschwitz at 22. My ds of 21 is sitting beside me eating homemade soup i just made, in a cozy fleece.

Different days and i thank god for that.

Mum (now 90) says that when she was at school, the poorer kids used to say "Can I have your apple core when you've finished with it?"

Yes mil said similar about the apple cores. This was in the 40s

YANBU.

One of my grandparents was the youngest of 11 children, and they all lived in a two bedroom flat. I definitely need to do my family tree sometime as I must have loads of relatives!

Ken Boothe's "I'm going to tell you goodbye" always breaks my heart. The optimism for a wonderful new life, and the harsh reality that awaited. This may not be your heritage, but I'm sure the story is similar for too many immigrant populations.

I remember being shown round a Greek village on holiday with mum, and they expected us to be in awe of these simple conditions. Mum just said life was pretty similar when she was at school.

The Jennifer Worth books that Call the Midwife are based on give an idea of how late this sort of life carried on.

For a slightly earlier view, Evelyn Prentis was a nurse who began her training in the 1930s - her books cover the period from then (A Nurse in Time) through to her last job in the 1970s as matron of a 'home for distressed gentlewomen' as a PP mentioned above (which is not a workhouse/asylum type institution but almhouses - which were the precursor to sheltered housing; cheap housing for thr elderly, with an onsite caretaker or matron who made daily visits, helped with maintenance and daily tasks, and ones with a matron also gave some level of personal care if needed).

I read the first couple of her books as a teenager and enjoyed them, but going back as an adult I saw an awful lot more between the lines. Like the 'busy little clinic' tucked away near the maternity ward that is (I now clearly see) dealing with the aftermath of illegal abortions. She moved around several types of hospital - a general training one, then a TB San in the 30s, moves to London during the war, and back to a busy general hospital in the 60s just as everything is changing in both the NHS and wider world. It's a fascinating view of the world my grandmother would have known - she had a very similar start growing up in a tiny rural place and becoming a nurse in the 1930s.

Thank you for sharing, I shall go and have a look at these books x