Keeping Toasty in the Mid-19th Century

Joined
Nov 26, 2016
Location
central NC
ancesc_Masriera_-_Winter_1882_-_Google_Art_Project.jpg

"Winter 1882" by Francesc Masriera - Public Domain

So how did our Victorian friends keep warm without all the modern conveniences so many of us rely upon? While I love romanticizing about a lovely belle sitting by a roaring fire in a beautiful drawing room, that wasn't the “real world” for most people in the Mid-19th​ century. For example, heavy drapes only graced the windows of the very wealthy and cost hundreds of dollars. Most Victorians had to sew their own drapes while the less affluent nailed or tacked blankets or fabric over their windows during the winter months. They were also forced to close off rooms during cold weather.

While Victorian homes in cities might have gas powered cast iron fireplaces, most houses had wood burning stoves. In cold weather it was critical to keep these stoked and when the husband went off to work it was the "lady of the house" who usually hauled wood in and kept the fires going. Children also shared this chore.

Of course, our Victorian friends knew how to "layer” their clothes. And those layers actually had a practical side in winter....they kept them toasty! Men wore long johns under their clothes and women wore layers of petticoats.

Staying warm at night was the biggest problem. Even in most middle class Victorian homes the only source of heat was on the first floor. It was difficult to heat the downstairs enough for the rising heat to make the winter nights comfortable. Folks often placed a cast iron grate between floors to allow heat to rise into the upstairs bedrooms.

Quilting was not only a social pastime but an essential chore. We often picture the grand Victorian bed, likely a beautifully carved four poster, covered with elegant linens. In truth bed linens from a store were quite expensive and beyond the means of most people. Our Victorian friends piled on the handmade quilts to keep warm which is why quilt chests were so popular.

Of course we can’t forget the bed warmer - a pan Victorians filled with burning charcoal or ashes from their fireplace or stove. Once filled, they closed the lid and used the pan’s long handle to slide it under the covers, between the blankets and the mattress. They left it there until it warmed up their bed. While coal-filled and ash-filled bed warmers were very popular, there was always the potential risk of fire. A safer and more portable option was the hot-water bed warmer or hot-water bottle.

Dressing-gowns were also common back in Victorian times. Dressing-gowns were worn at night over pajamas or a nightshirt for extra warmth. They added that extra, toasty layer of warmth on cold winter nights.

So when you’re tempted to grumble about the cold weather this winter, think about all our Victorian friends had to do to keep warm. Then crank up the thermostat and enjoy the heat.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Some years ago, I read an article about surviving the Little Ice Age winters (1700's) in New England. In addition to what is in the OP, the author noted that it was normal for the entire family to sleep in the same room and it was the only room with a lit fireplace at bed time. When the fire gave out, the result was a layer of frost on the side of each person faced away from the fireplace. Also, one of the rites of passage for the young ones was inheriting the privilege of being the first out of bed each morning and the one to bring the fire back to life.

The author said the upper floor was basically unused during the heart of winter. Personal hygiene was almost unknown during the winter. Cutting sufficient firewood was literally a life and death matter.
 
I can't recall the name of the late 19th-century author who wrote about his boyhood on a farm in Ohio. However, he related an interesting practice of the times for "keeping toasty". Parents would sew their children into their flannel underwear in the late fall and cut them out in the spring!
 
I can't recall the name of the late 19th-century author who wrote about his boyhood on a farm in Ohio. However, he related an interesting practice of the times for "keeping toasty". Parents would sew their children into their flannel underwear in the late fall and cut them out in the spring!
True. Dad was from a small town in a rural area of Mississippi. I remember him saying that in the winter many black children were slathered in bear grease - there were still many black bears in the woods in the 1910’s - and sew them in their clothes for the entire season.
 
Last edited:
View attachment 342994
"Winter 1882" by Francesc Masriera - Public Domain

So how did our Victorian friends keep warm without all the modern conveniences so many of us rely upon? While I love romanticizing about a lovely belle sitting by a roaring fire in a beautiful drawing room, that wasn't the “real world” for most people in the Mid-19th​ century. For example, heavy drapes only graced the windows of the very wealthy and cost hundreds of dollars. Most Victorians had to sew their own drapes while the less affluent nailed or tacked blankets or fabric over their windows during the winter months. They were also forced to close off rooms during cold weather.

While Victorian homes in cities might have gas powered cast iron fireplaces, most houses had wood burning stoves. In cold weather it was critical to keep these stoked and when the husband went off to work it was the "lady of the house" who usually hauled wood in and kept the fires going. Children also shared this chore.

Of course, our Victorian friends knew how to "layer” their clothes. And those layers actually had a practical side in winter....they kept them toasty! Men wore long johns under their clothes and women wore layers of petticoats.

Staying warm at night was the biggest problem. Even in most middle class Victorian homes the only source of heat was on the first floor. It was difficult to heat the downstairs enough for the rising heat to make the winter nights comfortable. Folks often placed a cast iron grate between floors to allow heat to rise into the upstairs bedrooms.

Quilting was not only a social pastime but an essential chore. We often picture the grand Victorian bed, likely a beautifully carved four poster, covered with elegant linens. In truth bed linens from a store were quite expensive and beyond the means of most people. Our Victorian friends piled on the handmade quilts to keep warm which is why quilt chests were so popular.

Of course we can’t forget the bed warmer - a pan Victorians filled with burning charcoal or ashes from their fireplace or stove. Once filled, they closed the lid and used the pan’s long handle to slide it under the covers, between the blankets and the mattress. They left it there until it warmed up their bed. While coal-filled and ash-filled bed warmers were very popular, there was always the potential risk of fire. A safer and more portable option was the hot-water bed warmer or hot-water bottle.

Dressing-gowns were also common back in Victorian times. Dressing-gowns were worn at night over pajamas or a nightshirt for extra warmth. They added that extra, toasty layer of warmth on cold winter nights.

So when you’re tempted to grumble about the cold weather this winter, think about all our Victorian friends had to do to keep warm. Then crank up the thermostat and enjoy the heat.
I’ve seen the bed warmers in antique shops. Somehow I don’t think they’d pass today’s fire safety codes!

4B1B2BD5-69F5-4D91-B5A6-93848250A7A1.jpeg
 
My father and his brothers used to sleep three to a bed upstairs at the old farmhouse, built in the 1700s. They would tussle to see who could sleep in the middle. He remembered plenty of times that the big range (which I well remember and using) that there would be live embers for starting a fire but the water in the kettle would be frozen! This is in NH.

Queen Anne wore 13 leather petticoats for her coronation in Westminster Abbey because of the extreme cold. Imagine NOT having 13 leather petticoats and having to be there that long!!! :cold:
 
Two or three bog dogs in the bedroom do wonders for taking off the chill, especially if they insist on trying to squeeze you out of the bed. I always wondered when I was a youngster, why all the quilts in the house weighed about 15 pounds. I still have two of them from our old farmhouse, one from the 1880's and one from the 1920's which I still use one or the other to this day (I sleep with the heat registers closed and the windows open) and when the temps are above the teens, you have to throw them off around 0200 since you get to sweating like a hog. Modern quilts I have seen seem to weigh no more than two or three pounds compared to the old time quilts we had. Lori had to mend the older one a year or so ago and found that below the three layers of patch work top (wool flannel bottom) was two thick cotton battings with a queen sized heavy wool blanket sandwiched between them.
 
A feather bed under and down comforts over keep you really toasty, once your body heat warms things up. Then, like Dave Hull says, you want to throw it all off, or at least get up and wander around in the cold to cool off. Airing everything out the next day is a necessity to evaporate the night's moisture, or the feathers will lose their insulating ability.
 
Last edited:
I've often pondered this. The original part of my house was built in about 1850, with chimneys on both ends of the house. I imagine stoves were used to heat the rooms. The part I just can't imagine is using an outhouse in sub-zero weather.

I often watch a youtube channel that has documented two years of a Canadian man building an off-grid homestead from scratch on his property way up in the north woods of Ontario. Talk about long cold winters... The guy now lives there full time. Now THAT'S commitment!
 
I just want to mention sleeping caps, very effective.

Yes indeed. At night, people would not be adding coal or wood to the fires and they likely didn't want to pull the covers completely over their heads and keep them there. Besides, the covers would inevitably slip off so wearing a cap helped keep them warm. Men's nightcaps were traditionally pointed, with a long top, usually accompanied by a small ball of some sort. Men wrapped the long top around their necks to keep them warm. I've also read that some men used the long top to bind their jaw shut so as not to sleep with their mouth wide open. I'm not sure if that's true.

You could often tell what class a woman belonged to by looking at her nightcap. Women with more wealth typically wore bonnets made from silk or velvet, and they were often embroidered. Women from the lower classes were concerned more with staying warm than making a fashion statement.
 
View attachment 342994
"Winter 1882" by Francesc Masriera - Public Domain

So how did our Victorian friends keep warm without all the modern conveniences so many of us rely upon? While I love romanticizing about a lovely belle sitting by a roaring fire in a beautiful drawing room, that wasn't the “real world” for most people in the Mid-19th​ century. For example, heavy drapes only graced the windows of the very wealthy and cost hundreds of dollars. Most Victorians had to sew their own drapes while the less affluent nailed or tacked blankets or fabric over their windows during the winter months. They were also forced to close off rooms during cold weather.

While Victorian homes in cities might have gas powered cast iron fireplaces, most houses had wood burning stoves. In cold weather it was critical to keep these stoked and when the husband went off to work it was the "lady of the house" who usually hauled wood in and kept the fires going. Children also shared this chore.

Of course, our Victorian friends knew how to "layer” their clothes. And those layers actually had a practical side in winter....they kept them toasty! Men wore long johns under their clothes and women wore layers of petticoats.

Staying warm at night was the biggest problem. Even in most middle class Victorian homes the only source of heat was on the first floor. It was difficult to heat the downstairs enough for the rising heat to make the winter nights comfortable. Folks often placed a cast iron grate between floors to allow heat to rise into the upstairs bedrooms.

Quilting was not only a social pastime but an essential chore. We often picture the grand Victorian bed, likely a beautifully carved four poster, covered with elegant linens. In truth bed linens from a store were quite expensive and beyond the means of most people. Our Victorian friends piled on the handmade quilts to keep warm which is why quilt chests were so popular.

Of course we can’t forget the bed warmer - a pan Victorians filled with burning charcoal or ashes from their fireplace or stove. Once filled, they closed the lid and used the pan’s long handle to slide it under the covers, between the blankets and the mattress. They left it there until it warmed up their bed. While coal-filled and ash-filled bed warmers were very popular, there was always the potential risk of fire. A safer and more portable option was the hot-water bed warmer or hot-water bottle.

Dressing-gowns were also common back in Victorian times. Dressing-gowns were worn at night over pajamas or a nightshirt for extra warmth. They added that extra, toasty layer of warmth on cold winter nights.

So when you’re tempted to grumble about the cold weather this winter, think about all our Victorian friends had to do to keep warm. Then crank up the thermostat and enjoy the heat.
My Mom talked about her Grandmother using a bed warmer between the sheets when she was a little girl. And there was a bear rug out in the outhouse for use during the winter...
 
Back
Top