The sixty year old bed

[cromwell]

I got a request from my in laws last week, asking if I could move their bed from the front to the back bedroom to help them get a better night's sleep.

So OK, no problem. Or so I thought. Then I remember that their house is a old terrace. Two bedrooms, very steep stairs and very tight for space. "Oh yes" says Mrs C, I remember now. When they moved in my Uncle Leonard had to take the bedroom window out to get the bed in... they had to use ropes".

So when I had a look at the bed I did get a bit of a shock. It's the same bed they had since they got married in 1955!

A wooden headboard and footboard, connected by two cast iron bed rails held in by screws at either end and some adjusting bolts at three-quarter length, then a separate springs section that slots in over the top of the rails, that is hinged in the middle. Everyone used to have them at one time, I remember my Gran having one, but I've not seen one like it for thirty years or more!

Anyway, it wasn't too bad moving it. Unscrew the cast iron rails (if they ever get another bed I'm weighing these in for scrap!) move the headboard and footboard into the back bedroom, take the rails through, re-assemble. Not difficult but time consuming - I think those screws and bolts hadn't been touched for a long time! Probably back in the day Uncle Leonard reckoned it would be quicker taking the window out than taking the bed to bits and humping them up the stairs!

[Kaz]

Oh, my goodness!!! Sounds as though you got away with it though - just about

[Workingman]

Ah, 'Grandma's bed' with headboard and footboard, from the days before sprung mattresses became the rage. Eiderdowns and counterpanes instead of duvets, and bolsters instead of individual pillows. Those were the days.

[meriad]

Good gosh - you'd probably get a fair whack of money for that if you sell it as an antique

[Osc]

We left a bed like that behind us when we sold our house! It weighed an absolute ton, and the spring section was not hinged. It was a four foot bed and my parents slept in it for quite a lot of their married life - don't know how they did though It became Miss Osc's bed and was extremely comfortable for one person.

[tonicha]

I know that feeling

When we moved into our cottage in Chipping Sodbury, we wanted to sell the "gentlemans wardrobe" and three mirror dressing table they'd left us.

So the front bedroom wiondow had to be taken out and the auction room bods came along, with a mini crane thingy and out they went

And it was well worth it they both went to America

[saundra]

Don't forget feather mattress my grandma had them
Plus real brass bed we had feather eidedowns then candlewick bedspread came into fashion

[Gal]

Ah, 'Grandma's bed' with headboard and footboard, from the days before sprung mattresses became the rage. Eiderdowns and counterpanes instead of duvets, and bolsters instead of individual pillows. Those were the days.

I slept on one such bed all my young life until I got married and left home I loved the bolster (the bed was very comfortable too )

[Aggers]

I remember those ancient beds. But we had a bolster plus individual pillows.

The springs used to squawk when you turned over.

Queue for song -"Does your chewing gum lose its flavour on the bedpost overnight?"
(Remember it?)

[Workingman]

I remember those ancient beds. But we had a bolster plus individual pillows.

You were posh, we only had pillows on t'other beds. They had prison stripes on them!

Gal, me and my brother shared Grandma's bed till we were in our teens. It was the best bed ever. We would thump it before getting in to make it 'our' shape.