Fuse box problem, is there an electrician in your family who can answer a couple of questions?

[1DoesNotSimplyWalkIntoMordor]

I have an old fuse box and tonight a lightbulb blew which in turn blew the fuse in the fuse box (which has not happened before) so by the light of a small torch I had to replace the fuse wire.
Are these fuse boxes still legal?
If I have the fuse box replaced with a new one will I have to have the house rewired too?
Roughly how much would it cost to replace the fuse box?
Roughly how much would cost for a rewire?
The house is a 1930's 3 bed semi detached (ground floor area 27×18ft)

We had our old fuse box replaced with a new consumer unit recently, I think it was about £400.
The electrician will test all your electrics, sockets, light fittings etc and let you know if you need a rewire. Luckily we didn't, 1920s house, so I can't help with costs for that.

As above really. Its common for a fuse to blow when a lamp fails, the best solution for this apart from a new modern RCD type fuse box is to have a small emergency light type fitting installed above the fuse box so if the power goes off it comes on.
But its much safer to update it all, the electrician will test each circuit I suspect they will have been replaced at some time so may be ok
Fuse box £4-500 depending on size, rewire £5000+ but cheaper ion you can install the back boxes and cables so the electrician just has to connect it all up, saves days on the job

Reason I was asking about a rewire is because I suspect the house has not had a complete rewire, we have a mixture of new and old (original) sockets, light switches and ceiling roses which makes me wonder if the newer sockets were added as spurs. Only the kitchen power sockets are all newer sockets which were replaced in the eighties when the kitchen was refurbished, when we recently removed the false ceiling in the kitchen we found a power socket above it, its not connected to the downstairs power circuit but it is live and must be on the upstairs circuit (the cooker hood is plugged in to it and was still working when the downstairs power fuse was removed in order to remove a socket from the skirting board because it needed replacing)
I've never needed to use a self employed electrician before (had one in the family) and have not seen or heard of one of these fuse boxes since the 70's when I used to watch my mum replace the fuse wire.

Complete rewire in my previous house was done for the cost of materials plus beer money and was less than £1000

Electrical regulations are not retrospective so it isn't illegal. But electricians are not allowed to add anything to it. Hence if you need any work done it will need to change. Had it done in not-London on a late seventies house for under £300, no rewire needed and yes the electrician had and gave all the certificates. unless you have round pin sockets all should be ok.

to be accurate, it is not at all commom for a fuse to blow when a light bulb fails.

It is however common for a MCB (breaker) to trip. This is because they react more quickly

A light-bulb surge is not at all common now that people use LEDs and energy saving lamps. It used to happen mostly with non-standard lamps such as spotlights. What sort of lamp was it that failed?

@PigletJohn I have 3 wall lights one in the hall, one at the bottom of the stairs and one at the top of the stairs instead of ceiling lights in the hall and on the landing, they take a golf ball bulb.

When I bought the house I replaced the bulbs with energy saving bulbs but they failed every couple of months, I assumed that it was because all three lights were operated by the same switches (top and bottom of the stairs) so I reverted back to using standard incandescent bulbs (bulk bought them)which was what was in them when I bought the house.

No other bulb in the house that failed has blown the fuse wire before.

Being that it's a very old fuse box it doesn't have an MCB and that's what worries me.

it might be that there is a loose connection causing flickering. Could be in either of the switches, or in one of the boxes on the wall.

a small golfball lamp might not have an internal fuse, and the envelope may be small enough to fill with plasma when the filament burns away. Were they unbranded imports?

golballs are not very common, but candle lamps are seen more often.

See if you can find a Phillips, Osram or Sylvania LED golfball/miniglobe to fit, it may last better. Or if you are handy, check the switches for wear or loose terminals. Switches should snap firmly into position with an internal spring.

@PigletJohn I managed to get the metal part of the bulb out of the light fitting and discovered that one of the metal connections on the bottom is missing so I will need to have a look in the light fitting itself which will be difficult because it's above a small landing with another step up to the main landing, I'll need to do that later while there is enough daylight to see properly. I will also check the light switches at the same time, they are the old switches which you flip up/down as opposed to push in at the top/bottom.

The lights all originally had pull cords on them so they could be turned on/off individually but the one in the hall broke (in the base the cord is attached to a metal switch and that is what is broken not the cord itself) so we don't use the hall light anymore because we can't actually turn it on.

I have ordered some Phillips bulbs. I'll let you know what I find later (after work)

Thanks everyone else for your comments, hopefully I can avoid a complete rewire at this stage.

If they are old switches, the springs may be weak and the contacts worn.

if you ever get a lightbulb where the glass has broken, there is safe way to remove the base without cutting yourself or poking pliers in.

you turn off the power at the main switch

get a big hard old carrot

whittle it down so it will fit (just) inside the metal collar of the lightbulb

press it down and twist.

OP DP is an electrician and he wouldn't charge £5k+ for a rewire, but we are probably in quite a cheap area of the country.
Hope you get sorted!