Delia Daws (nee Towers) of Kendal, recalls electricity and gas challenges in the 1940s

IN THE early 1940s, because of the war, money was in very short supply.

You had to be careful when using the electric, and only switch the light on when really necessary.

We couldn't afford to run up a bill and not be able to pay for it at the end of the quarter.

In summer we could go to bed in the daylight and get up next morning in the light.

One summer my mother's electric bill was eleven pence - this was because she had used her electric iron!

By this time I was going to Kendal High School, I remember in winter sitting at the back kitchen table doing my homework by the light of a candle, held in a blue metal candlestick.

Paying for the gas involved putting a shilling in the meter, when this ran out, so did the gas. When the meter was emptied we always got a refund.

Our wireless was run off an acid battery. When this ran down we would take it to be recharged at the local garage.

Nothing else was electrical. We had a stand on the front of the fire and did a lot of cooking on it.

I used to go down the canal banks with my mother doing what we called "sticking" - collecting wood which had fallen off trees.

This gave us a good fire, and, if there was plenty, we sometimes had a fire in the front room as well.

We always went in there at Christmas and had a tin of pears with evaporated milk - a real treat.