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Water in England
Hardcover
Published January 1, 1978
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January 11, 2021
Published in 1964 this absorbing and brilliantly researched book compels the reader to focus intensely, as the writer does, on every aspect of water's presence in our lives.
Taken for granted now, indoor plumbing for almost all was a twentieth century development. Born in 1893, the author had first hand experience of houses without indoor sanitation, describing the indoor earth closets still in use in the early twentieth century - including those at Newnham College, Cambridge For personal hygiene, cooking, and laundry, using the right kind of water was essential, and even when piped water was available, hoteliers continued to supply rainwater for hair washing. . Before piped supplies managed by local authorities then regional companies, protecting that water from pollutants was a householder's responsibility. Dorothy Hartley celebrates too, the role of water in leisure, including, for pilgrims, the pre-Reformation cruise ships operated by the Knights Templar and Hospitallers. As she says, ' the word 'pilgrim' was elastic.'
Taken for granted now, indoor plumbing for almost all was a twentieth century development. Born in 1893, the author had first hand experience of houses without indoor sanitation, describing the indoor earth closets still in use in the early twentieth century - including those at Newnham College, Cambridge For personal hygiene, cooking, and laundry, using the right kind of water was essential, and even when piped water was available, hoteliers continued to supply rainwater for hair washing. . Before piped supplies managed by local authorities then regional companies, protecting that water from pollutants was a householder's responsibility. Dorothy Hartley celebrates too, the role of water in leisure, including, for pilgrims, the pre-Reformation cruise ships operated by the Knights Templar and Hospitallers. As she says, ' the word 'pilgrim' was elastic.'
Displaying 1 of 1 review