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We used to get coal delivered - a tonne of coal. It would be tipped in the road and then it would have to be carried in buckets through the house into the coal house. That wouldn't happen today because how could you tip a tonne of coal outside everyone's house when you have all these cars. There were no cars then so there was always tonnes of coal outside people's houses.

It wasn't just the man of the house who would have to take the coal in. The wife and the children would have to do their bit. You would all get a bucket, fill it with coal, take it through the house and put it in the coal house.

When we went to bags my father used to tell me to go up to the bedroom window to count how many sacks came in through the gate because he was convinced that they might knock off one sack of coal. He didn't want anyone to do him out of a sack of coal.