So Fa La Land

6 - Riddling The Ashes

[The image above shows a typical sieve of ashes. The idea behind riddling is that the real ash, the waste product, falls through the sieve into the bucket to be disposed of. What is left in the sieve can be put back into the fire or stove to continue to be burned. In poor homes, this was an important part of saving money.]

Breakfasts were finished, George had cleaned away the dining room débris, Elsie was washing up in the scullery while Minnie sat herself down and read the newspaper. A short period of downtime before lunches had to be prepared. Most guests were out today so only three families for lunch. They had bought full-board, a type of accommodation which has almost died out in the modern world, but was still very popular in the nineteen-sixties.

George brought the last of the dirty plates through to Elsie, then topped up the Aga cooker with coal and riddled the ashes.

While George was always careful and put a newspaper on the floor while he was doing this task, ashes still ended up on the floor and created dust which Minnie could see floating in the air as the sun streamed through the kitchen window. Seeing the dust in the air took her straight back to Mary Murray's Institution and the unfortunate Stella Blakely ...

- o O o -

Riddling the ashes was normally to let the ashes settle from the fire allowing you to throw them away and let more air to flow in to the fire itself.

In the early part of the twentieth century the process was taken a stage further owing to finances. The ashes had to be properly riddled and any unburned coal reintroduced to the fire.

The ashes were taken from the ash-pan and placed in a sieve. This was then agitated quickly to allow the ash to fall through into a bucket while the larger pieces which might still contain some fuel remained in the sieve. It had to be done quickly because the sieve could become red hot as the ashes were pulled from directly beneath the fire or stove.

It was a horrible job which left hot ashes floating around in the air to be breathed in, setting off coughing fits.

Each of the older girls at Mary Murray's Institution took turns riddling the ashes and carrying the bucket outside to the ashes pit.

It was Stella Blakely's turn today and she had put the ashes into the bucket and stood up ready to take them outside. Minnie and several other girls were also in the room when the door was suddenly thrown open.

In marched Miss Hodges at that moment, picked up a poker and prodded around in the bucket of hot ashes. She unearthed a piece of unburned coal about the size of a Brussels sprout.

"What is this, Stella Blakely?"

"A piece of coal, Miss Hodges. I must have missed it," the twelve year-old said in a timid voice, knowing no good could come of this line of questioning.

To the surprise and shock of all of the class, Miss Hodges picked up the entire bucket of ashes, still hot from the fire and said, "Let this be a lesson to riddle the ashes properly," and she emptied the entire bucket over Stella's head.

The girl was being burned and tried to brush the ashes off herself with her hands while, at the same time, coughing violently where she had breathed in with the shock of what the matron had done.

"Leslie Reid, get this girl out of my classroom," she shouted, "and Peggy Robertson, get a brush and dustpan and sweep Stella's mess of the floor, oh, and make sure you pick out any more pieces of coal while doing it. This school is not made of money!"

Peggy jumped up, smartly, and raced out to get the necessary equipment from the cupboard in the hallway, returned and began the messy task of trying to brush the ashes into a pan.

"Stupid girl," Miss Hodges cried, "Get some water and sprinkle it about so that the ashes don't go absolutely everywhere. Have you got no sense at all?"

Peggy ran out once more and came back with a bowl of water and a cloth which she used to soak up the water. She then squeezed the cloth over the ashes to stop them flying about.

Eventually the job was done. Only a few bits of coal about the size of a farthing (¼ of an old penny – about 1/10th of a modern penny in value, about 1.4cm in diameter). The piece in Stella Blakely's bucket must have been a freak, but Miss Hodges always seemed to discover mistakes and errors, consistently punishing them with beatings or other vindictive actions.

None of the Robertson girls ever saw Stella Blakely again and there was a rumour that the ashes had got into her brain causing the school to have to put her into a mental asylum. [My mother still believed this to be so when she was recounting this story in the nineteen eighties.] 

Miss Hodges' cruel and sadistic treatment of her charges became legendary to all of the girls who attended Mary Murray's.

Bath time was another occasion when Miss hodges could deliberately embarrass and shame the girls.

The bath was at the end of a room and there could be twenty or thirty girls to be bathed that night. Miss Hodges made them all strip naked and stand, waiting for their turn in the bath. The girls who had begun to develop breasts, like the older Robertson girls were picked upon more than the others.

Miss Hodges would walk up and down the rows of naked girls forcing the older girls to remove their folded arms and telling them, and I quote from my mother, "look at your breasts, you are turning into nursing cows and suckling pigs!"

She would then pick an older girl and make her get into the bath with one of the pre-pubescent girls just to embarrass them further.

Miss Hodges seemed to have a fetish for shaming the young women pupils and so they began fastening their tops tighter and tighter to make it look as if they had no breasts. Minnie remembered that certain slim blonde girls at the home never got such treatment. Why were they selected for special favours?

It was sadism of the worst type and she would have been prosecuted for child abuse if she were still alive today.

Fortunately for her, she is long dead because sons and daughters of those girls would have tracked her down and brought her to justice on hearing these stories – perhaps even rough justice for her inhuman actions.

- o O o -

George made himself a cup of coffee and sat down and the long kitchen table.

"Only six adults an' four kids for lunch today. Not many full-boards this week," he said.

"No, and next week there are only three booked for full board. One family."

"I think we need to get a sign out on the road saying, 'LUNCHES' and get some casuals."

"You know Penny doesn't like not knowing how many she's serving."

"I've 'ad enough of our staff tellin' us what we can an' can't do. I was talking to Bill a' the Bay View Hotel an' we was thinking we need to give some of these local women an ultimatum."

"Oh, George. We can't afford to lose them and it is we were, not we was."

George gazed skywards at the grammar correction which he'd heard a thousand times before, "I'm gettin' the sign made. I'll do the lunches if Penny doesn't wan' to so it'll be 'er choice."

"We'd have to cook lunches to order, though. I plan the full board lunches depending on the numbers booked. I can't just produce extra to order."

"What about fish an' chips or a pie or som'fing?"

"Possibly."

"We'll 'af to do something. The 'otel's not making any money a' the moment. We're near the overdraft limit again."

"I'll do something if you want to try it, but be careful with Penny. We're working twelve hours a day as it is."

"Okay. I'll be careful."

Minnie wondered how much Elsie might have heard of the conversation as she washed the dishes. Penny, Ada and Elsie were all 'thick as thieves' neighbours from Upton and Lynstone near the hotel.

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