Petrol for homes without electricity?

Discussion in 'United Kingdom' started by JHamilton, Nov 21, 2022.

  1. JHamilton

    JHamilton Member

    During WWII, petrol was rationed severely in the UK. I’m wondering how that worked for those in the country without electricity. From what I can tell, many country-dwellers used petrol-powered generators to run essentials like radios, lights, and some appliances.

    Did people without electricity get more petrol than those with electricity? Or did generators use a lot less petrol than I’m assuming?

    I read somewhere that non-essential petrol was completely cut off as of 1942. Was this true? Did those without electricity just have to do without?

    Any help with this would be appreciated. Thanks!
     
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  2. Trux

    Trux 21 AG

    I lived in a small town during and after the war. The surrounding villages and hamlets did not have mains electricity until well into the 1950s. Most houses, and not only in the country, had a coal or wood burning range which heated water and had an oven and hot plates. Most had a wireless set powered by a battery like a car battery. This was taken to a local garage to be recharged.

    Farms were different. They often did have a generator. Farms had an allotment of petrol, the amount being decided on the basis of what they needed to operate machinery to produce food. Such petrol was dyed red to prevent its use for unauthorised purposes.

    I suppose it is difficult to imagine a world without electricity and personal communication devices but country folk were not accustomed to having electricity and there was probably only a public phone box in the village.

    I would be interested to hear more.

    Mike.

    PS.
    Piped water was by no means universal in those days either.
     
  3. OpanaPointer

    OpanaPointer Pearl Harbor Myth Buster

    I helped run electric lines to my grandmother's house, c. 1965. This was in rural Missouri.
     
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  4. JHamilton

    JHamilton Member

    Thank you very much, that is really helpful!



     
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  5. Uncle Target

    Uncle Target Mist over Dartmoor

    Following on from Mike,
    Towns and cities were supplied with Gas from a local Gas Works, This was extracted from coal which was heated in large ovens. The remains of the coal was coke used to heat houses, being burned in the fireplace. Many houses pre-war had gas lighting and cooking stoves.
    In the 1950's friends on a farm had a generator powered by a Lister single cylinder Diesel Engine. When you switched a light on the low voltage battery powered circuit would start the generator.
    If the engine didn't start after 30 seconds you had to go out into the barn and turn it over by hand then wait for it to get up to speed.

    Not dure if/when they stopped dying agricultural fuel as it used to be tax exempt.

    Little history note; If you go onto Exmoor in Devon you will see many Beech Trees planted for nuts which were used to produce oil for lamps to light houses.
    Water came from wells or local streams.
     
    Last edited: Nov 23, 2022
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  6. SteveDee

    SteveDee Well-Known Member

    Red diesel is still used for farm vehicles and certain other 'off-road' applications. Its illegal to use it in road going vehicles, but a surprisingly high percentage of people risk it.

    According to A.S.Cross (59th HAA) red dye was also used in WW2 in petrol:-
    We were given our own petrol tank; silent prayers were offered to the God of Purloin by those who could see a quick few bob on the horizon, until they saw the tanker driver empty a flash of red dye in. Then the budding chemists within our ranks spent many hours trying to filter the dye out before they finally admitted defeat (Army 1, troops 0).
     
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  7. Uncle Target

    Uncle Target Mist over Dartmoor

    Ramsbury 1939 67th Field Regt. were carrying out training on Salisbury plain prior to embarkation to France with the BEF.
    They were billettted in Ramsbury and Aldbourne.

    On one occasion 2nd Lieutenants Malcolm Harding Roberts and Tom Averill hired a car from the landlord of the Malt Shovel and managed to ‘secure’ some red dyed petrol.
    Whilst on their journey they passed a policeman on traffic duty. Although Tom Averill was annoyed that the officer had failed to salute as they went by, they decided not to stop and pursue the matter in-case he enquired about the petrol!

    Excerpt from "Ramsbury at War" by Roger Day.
     
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  8. ARPCDHG

    ARPCDHG Member

    Never heard or seen that written before - have you a source? You might be thinking of paraffin, which was also rationed but used for burners, heaters and generators etc, but not so widely available to be used so freely.
     
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  9. Uncle Target

    Uncle Target Mist over Dartmoor

    People who had need to travel would apply for fuel ration tickets. These were often sold on the black market.
    Have you not watched Dads Army on the television?
    Fuel was paid for with the tickets no cash sales. This example was issued in 1974 during the fuel crisis but rationing didn't go ahead.
    Food was also rationed throughout the war and into the 1950's.

    Rationing in the United Kingdom - Wikipedia
     

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    Last edited: Nov 23, 2022
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  10. Tullybrone

    Tullybrone Senior Member

    One of the Scots Guards officer service files on FMP contains his court martial papers for “misuse of WD fuel” - he put military fuel in his own car whilst in England 1940 post Dunkirk. He was severely reprimanded.

    Steve
     
  11. OpanaPointer

    OpanaPointer Pearl Harbor Myth Buster

    You can still get a charge foruing "farm fuel" in your car/truck. I was pax when my country cousin got pulled over for this. NINTH time he was charged for using "red diesel". He's vacationing not far from me, "cross-bar Hilton".
     
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  12. JHamilton

    JHamilton Member

    OK, I didn't realize the generators were run on a battery. Fantastic info, thank you!

     
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  13. Uncle Target

    Uncle Target Mist over Dartmoor

    " From what I can tell, many country-dwellers used petrol-powered generators to run essentials like radios, lights, and some appliances".

    Which country do you live in? I assume that you are quite young or from America where they lived in relative luxury, made their fortune in the war and never bombed, rationing was virtually unknown.
    Very few people had appliances (White Goods) before the 1960's. Few people had cars. Demand for petrol or diesel was relatively low.
    In the town where I grew up there were two cars in a road of over 100 houses until the 1960's.
    Televisions were rare with black & white pictures, less than a dozen in our road.
    We had transistor radios powered by batteries. Older radios were mains powered. Fridges and freezers unknown. They burned coal, coke, or wood in fireplaces for heat and had their chimneys swept to clean out the soot if not they had chimneys catching fire. To iron clothes they used an iron its called an iron because that's what it was, a piece of iron with a handle heated on the fireplace of kitchen cooker.
    People went by bus to the cinema or walked. Caught steam trains to go on holiday. there were lots of train routes before Dr Beeching (look him up).
    No airports like today. Cycling was a popular hobby or transport to work.
    There were carnivals, travelling fairs and circuses. No National Health until 1948.
    People in the country had paraffin oil lamps to light the house and toilets in the garden over a pit. Water from a well.
    Carpets were hung out on a line and beaten to get the dirt out.
    Tissue as we know it today wasn't seen until the 1960's.
    We had frost on the inside of the windows in winter. No double glazing.
    We worked hard for long hours in factories making most of the products that we needed.
    But we were happy closing the curtains at night and making toast on the fire.
    Or going down the pub for a pint and a game of darts.

    Richard Beeching - Wikipedia

    Not come across a website that really describes a British pub in the Wartime era or the years soon after.
     
    Last edited: Nov 24, 2022
  14. JHamilton

    JHamilton Member

    Probably not the strongest sources but I haven't had a chance to confirm elsewhere:
    Petrol rationing and petrol coupons in the UK in WW2 and afterwards
    Rationing in the United Kingdom - Wikipedia

    I'm more than happy to be corrected on this though.

     
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  15. JHamilton

    JHamilton Member

    I'm in my mid-30s and live in Canada. :) I've been watching Wartime Farm and was going by that and a couple Land Girls books.
    When I say appliances, I mean like an iron or a cooker. (Again, going by the Wartime Farm book.) There was also use of an early washing machine on the show—a cranked one that I can't find the name of at the moment. She also used an electric iron on the show.
    Thank you for this info!


     
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  16. Uncle Target

    Uncle Target Mist over Dartmoor

    There are a few Canadians on the forum you might get a bit of help from them.
    Lots of Brits emigrated to Canada after both First and Second World Wars.
    They try to kid us they are more civilised than the Americans but with a fair few of them here too, let's not start a war!
    We are much more Trans-Atlantic here since we took up Rock n Roll.

    I come from Worcestershire which is part industrial, part rural. Aged 74 I remember rationing.
    My Great Aunt ran an old thatched roof village shop. She never went more than 20 miles away all her life.
    Many of my relatives worked for the Railways including my father. My mother worked in a munitions factory making machine guns during the war. They both ran a pub afterwards.
    I began work in a factory that had made aircraft parts in the war. There were 1200 men there working shifts.
    Most of them had fought in the war in all parts of the world, Navy, Airforce and Army.
    We used to sit having our meals on the night shift listening to their stories often making fun of each other.
     
    Last edited: Nov 24, 2022
  17. Uncle Target

    Uncle Target Mist over Dartmoor

    I dont think I watched this particular series but they are usually pretty good with their facts.
    It is just a difference in what was available and what ordinary people actually used.
    Farmers were a mixed bunch, from small holders to stately homes.
    None of my family would have had a washing machine but my wife's would.
    They were big time farmers in Wiltshire.
    They had fridges, freezers and a television in the 1950's.

    Wartime Farm - Wikipedia
     
    Last edited: Nov 24, 2022
  18. SteveDee

    SteveDee Well-Known Member

    Without dropping into a Monty Python sketch, I'd say this was broadly true.

    Like most working class people in Britain, both my parents families were dirt poor before WW2, and struggled to rebuild their lives right up to the early 1960s. Car ownership would have been for the wealthy middle class, and some working class guys would have had motorbikes post war.

    For us, things began to improve in the 60s and dad bought his first secondhand car in 1962.

    This was me aged 9. Our family of 4 were about to make the 'long' journey from Essex to Dorset on & in this Norton sidecar combo...

    SteveNorton.png
     
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  19. papiermache

    papiermache Well-Known Member

    Honestly, whatever next ?

    Colonel Sir Charles MacAndrew: "Is my hon. Friend aware that certain A.R.P. ambulances are being driven simply to charge the accumulators? I will give him the details."

    HANSARD 1803–2005 → 1940s → 1940 → June 1940 → 18 June 1940 → Commons Sitting → ORAL ANSWERS TO QUESTIONS.
    PETROL RATIONING.

    PETROL RATIONING. (Hansard, 18 June 1940)
     
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  20. Uncle Target

    Uncle Target Mist over Dartmoor

    This thread (which I was visiting until 0430 due a poorly old dog) raised my interest and kept me going during a tough few hours.
    I began to search to see what transatlantic friends thought of us at the time and indeed what we ourselves were like.

    There is a series of films made to inform American Servicemen about us and how to behave in our company. Worth a look.

    I have fairy recently read "Tonight we die as men" the story of the Third Battalion 506 Parachute Infantry Regiment who fought alongside Easy Company of Band of Brothers fame.
    They all trained and were billeted in Ramsbury and Aldbourne in Wiltshire. It was part authored by Roger Day a local historian whose parents had one of them staying in their house. Roger writes about the things that the Americans got up to and their attitude to the locals. However he does not have the Letters that my colleague has left by his grandfather who was billeted there in 1939. One lady in particular was (in no uncertain terms) highly critical of the American troops in a letter that she wrote to him while he was at Anzio.
     

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    Last edited: Nov 24, 2022
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