1930s agas - boilers

[Bluebird]

I have been googling like mad and can't find anything definitive.

In pictures of a number of the 1930s agas there are taps, presumably for hot water, sticking out the front. I wondered if anyone knows where the tanks/boilers were situated in the aga and how they were filled in the 30s, please? Were they filled manually or piped in?

I am still working on house plans and now that my 1930s house owner has found room for a bathroom (I had just planned on giving her a tub) she expects me to work out how to provide the hot water for it!

[jeanmtweddle]

Hi Bluebird - fairly certain you filled them by hand. You can get the Ascot type boiler for the bathroom.

[Bluebird]

Thanks Jean, I thought that must have been the case....so now I have to ask...what fuels Ascot boilers please?

This cottage is in a country village with only paraffin, coal and wood - no gas or electricity.

[Bluebird]

Alas they are gas, but if anyone else needs one, came across this tutorial while googling.

let's make a dollhouse ascot boiler

[juliec]

hiya,

1930s, without gas or electric.

me is thinking you would be having a rayburn rather than an aga, rayburns have an actual fire inside which you have to light and keep it lit or loose your heating/cooking and hot water.

they then have a tank in the airing cupboard to keep the hot water in and when you want a bath you have to make the fire up and wait for the water to heat.

Unbelieveably when my parents moved to their very remote welsh farmhouse it still had the rayburn and it was the only heating/hotwater/cooking in the place. you soon adjust to setting your alarm clock to get up in the wee small hours to go and throw coal on the fire if you want warmth in the mornings.

it has now been replaced with an oilsystem!

[juliec]

forgot the water aspect, theirs was fed by well water piped in.

[Bluebird]

I thought you might have sold my problem, Julie, but sadly Rayburn didn't begin until 1946 and even though my house is poised at 1947 the stove was put in when the couple were married in 1935 (or soon after). (Phoenix do make a nice Rayburn stove too)

Too bad, she will just have to carry the hot water if she wants a bath!
Being so soon after the war I don't think she would be used to wanting a deep luxurious bath anyway.

Incidentally does anyone know why bath depths were limited during war time? Was it to conserve the energy used to heat the water or was water a problem?

[juliec]

hiya,

i been googling!! there are quite a few books available on amazon about 1930s britain, one in particular by trevor yorke looks good.

dont know if it may be worth googling the book itself to see if you can get any info for your house from it.

im working on the bathwater question but nanny is having an off day ...as you do at 95!

[grazhina]

re bathtub water rationing: I believe it was to conserve energy so more fuel would be available for powering plants for the war effort.

I recall that one of the great advantages of the Aga was that it could be fueled by anything, coal, gas, wood, electric, dried dung.......

[Bluebird]

His books look great, Julie - did you notice he seems to have one on almost every period! I found a few more on 'my' era in Amazon too - pity the postage to here is twice the price of the books. free post to the UK though.

Thanks for that grazhina. One thing I love about this hobby is all the knowledge you get along the way.

Apparently during the war there was a huge waiting list for agas, with farmers getting priority. I was surprised that they were being produced in a time when even metal jar lids were being replaced with paper and glass but I guess anything was needed to help the food producers of the nation.