Home on the range

Thinking about Agas reminded me of the days of blackleading the grate

My grandmother's range was a wonderful thing. It was in the front room, not the back kitchen. Fuelled by coal or coke, it provided a warm room for sitting in, hot water via a back boiler, and a double oven for baking everything from Sunday roast to the sort of home made cakes & biscuits so fashionable again now we all need comfort. Nobody of my Nana’s generation made their own bread, when the baker did it so much better

The range had to be thoroughly cleaned each Friday & polished up with black lead

I am faintly disappointed to find that this process does not provide a slightly exciting sense of flirting with danger (in retrospect, having survived my apprenticeship in this housewifely task)

The Oxford English Dictionary defines it as ‘A preparation of inferior quality for domestic use in polishing grates and other cast-iron utensils’, made from black lead & turpentine. It is nothing more than ‘The ordinary name of the mineral called also plumbago or graphite (The name dates back to days before the real composition of the substance was known.)’

And you can still get it, should you want some


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