Welcome to ECN Bruce.
I was bought up in what would now be described as a poor 'working class' home, [ that is, we were permanently broke!] and I never saw anyone cooking over open fires as a boy except tramps [ er...hobos
] - and boy scouts. We had a range, a blacked-iron coal fired oven with hot plates. Ma polished the living daylights out of it with 'Zebrite', a mixture of graphite and boot polish, so it shone like a mirror. It had to be managed like a steam engine, and could turn our entire 2 up 2 down into a hothouse while baking or boiling. Other days, if the wind was in the wrong direction, it just filled the place with smoke and sulferous smuts! Sukie [the kettle] sat whimpering and whispering on it 24/7 for the interminal rounds of tea partaken by the Brits in those times. Some models even had a tea-boiler with a brass tap to provide everlasting brews of the stuff! We had gas lights and took candles up to bed till the 'leccy was fitted in 1954.
Happy days!
