South Yorkshire Times, April 28, 1951
Brr! Brr!
One Fireplace Not Enough—Say Conisbrough Tenants
A large proportion of the people living In the Oval- Conisbrough’s prefabricated housing estate—have sent a Petition to Conisbrough Urban Council complaining about the one fireplace in the houses.
The petition suggests that the fireplace Is “wholly inadequate as a source of warmth” and it should be replaced by an open fireplace.
There are 45 houses in The Oval, and 33 of the tenants have signed the Petition. The remaining dozen open were out when the Petition was taken round for signing.
The one fireplace in the prefabricated house is in the living room. It is an enclosed one, sunk into the partition wail and has central heating pipes leading from it to the bedrooms.
The complaint is that, while the fireplaces are ideal for summer, when the chief need of a fire is to keep the water hot, they give out no heat in winter. An open fire, they say, would warm the rooms properly, and would stop their children from contracting the colds they vet each winter.
The tenants are prepared to meet the cost of the new fire-places by an increased rent. Some had even asked if they could put in tiled fireplaces at their own expense.
The petition was organised by Cadeby Colliery miner, Mr Leonard Poole, of 18, The Oval. Mr Poole, with two small children, had complained of the fireplaces long enough: so he decided to do something active. Everyone he approached signed.
Said Mrs Poole: “We have all been complaining that it is not warm enough. A few people with children have had them ill many times. The fireplaces are the safest kind, but all the heat goes up the chimney instead of coming out.”
Neighbour Mr. Tom Fox, also a miner at Yorkshire Main Colliery, has four children and he is “always needing the doctor.” The fireplaces he compared to the old Army stoves where “you sit round in a ring get warm at the front and cold at the back.”
With no heat coming out from the fire the bedrooms become damp says Mr Fox. The wall’s “sweat’ and then people catch chills.
Conisbrough Council have decidedto write to the appropriate Government department about the petition.