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Housekeeping

Housework in the nineteenth century was no easy task. Preparing even a simple meal was time consuming and quite hard physical labour. Before the innovations of the twentieth century, cooking for most people was still carried out on a coal or wood burning stove. Unlike later gas ranges or electric cookers which could simply be switched on, these needed fuel to be collected and carried and needed constant attention as there was no way of regulating temperature other than adding more coal or wood. Women would have spent about four hours a day just carrying coal, setting fires, raking and dumping ashes and blacking (similar to waxing) and cleaning the stove!

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