Posted by Owen Roberts on May 31, 2014 at 17:16:07 user OwenRoberts.
In Reply to: Re: Beckfoot Layout - DRAWING posted by Tom Napier on May 30, 2014 at 19:01:54:
Tom is quite right about the use of coke in stoves, also if you had a properly designed grate – it could also be used for open fires. My parents did have a grate of this type, where air below the grate was controlled by a screwed aperture. At night, there was a banking plate that was placed above the grate so that coke could be piled up and remain alight overnight. (Almost as good as putting earth over an open fire!)
We must not forget that the lower Lake District was not that far from the coal mines around Workington. Windermere did have its own gas works, so coke would have been easily available for Beckfoot.
The coal option for stoves was often anthracite beans which gave a very good heat more than could be obtained from coke, but was not quite so smoke free..
Coke was cheaper than coal as it was initially a by product of gas production. When electricity became a serious challenger to gas, many smaller gasworks produced coke only as their gas demand had gone.
Bowness (Rio) did have electricity for the streetlights and in large hotels (supplied by Troutbeck Bridge Mills).but was otherwise gas lit in 1894.
Nowadays, being lazy, I do use a gas poker to light my coal fires. What would Nancy and Susan have said?