I found Col's four Yorkshiremen scenario really funny, BUT, there is an
element of truth in some of these points.
In my youth (I am in my 50's), in the days before central heating and
double-glazing, there was only one source of heat in the house and that was
the coal fireplace in the living room. The rest of the house was freezing...
literally. Yes, there really was ice on the inside of bedroom windows and if
you ran a hot bath in the bathroom, it would fill with clouds of steam and
condensation would be running down the walls. Bedrooms were cold and before
duvets came along, you relied on sheets, blankets and a hot-water bottle. I
can still remember overcoats being laid on top of the bed to add an extra
layer. The problem was that sheets and blankets didn't have the same warming
properties that modern light-weight hi-tog duvets have. Put it this way...
once you had finally managed to warm the bed up, you'd have to be extremely
desperate to answer the call of nature on a winter's night.
Modern houses are by and large, much better insulated than of old, and even
with the bedroom window open, it's nothing like what it used to be like in
the good old days.
The old music-hall joke about the steam from the 'po' under the bed rusting
the bed springs is probably founded on a certain amount of truth!
The Met Office weather warnings, such as they, serve to remind us of just
how soft we have become. We didn't have people telling us to wrap up warm in
years gone by, no one to advise on filling a hot-water bottle, or how it
might be a good idea to put an extra overcoat on the bed. You have to wonder
just how we all coped!

Regards... David Allan.