Forums Forums Wirral History : Chasing the Past Wirral History Gas, Electric meters, etc.

I was talking to my mates young son and he seemed to be interested on how the meter system worked, as far as putting a shilling in, etc. Obviously many on here will remember all this but there will be many who have no idea at all. My memory only takes me back to meters that we had to put a shilling in to receive gas or electric, i believe there were penny meters but i don't remember them. Unlike today there wasn't any credit buttons, so if you never had a shilling you went without. Every quarter the gas and the electric man would come and empty the meter, this was a good time for us kids, he would come in and remove the cash box from the meter, undoing the pad lock and then he would snip the seal with his pliers. The seal was to stop someone picking the lock and helping themselves ( household member). He would then sit on the couch with a coffee table in front of him and count the contents, stacking the shillings in one pound stacks, he then sorted out what the bill was and gave my mum her rebate and i always got a couple of bob off my mum. He then put all his shillings in brown paper bags and deposited then in his, sort of large heavy leather hand bag and off he went, on his way out he would put the cash box back, put the lock on and reseal. My mates lad accepted all that but i had trouble convincing him that a neighbour had a TV that you had to put a shilling in or perhaps more, can't quite remember.

My late father had a clock that you had to insert 10p to get it to work, It was like a savings scheme to pay the insurance I think Pearl provided it, In the end they gave him the clock when the direct debit system came into use, but it worked on a similar principle to the electric & Gas meters Bert1 is talking about.

It was called Telebank. You would rent the tv. Part of the power lead was a big assed digital clock, you would put money in that and it would give you time credit to watch the tv. If the time credit ran out and you didnt have any more money to put in it the power to the tv was disabled.

Worked very similar to the leccy meters as described above.

We called our leccy meter 'The God Box'. For some reason any time anyone in our house said Oh God, or something similar the meter would run out lol.

Story linked to Telebank type set up

My memories about the gas and electric meters ate exactly the same as yours Bertione. I also remember my dad had about ten foreign coins that fitted the electric meter and they would be sorted out by the leccy man and handed back as part of the rebate (and went straight back in again). There were big celebrations when a new man didn't notice them and the rebate was all 'proper' money. Happy days.

I remember collecting "Tanners" to go in our gas and leccy meters. If you ever got a tanner you had to ask your mum or nan if they needed it. We used to keep a little pile of them in the meter cupboards to put in when they ran out.


Telebank, that was were my Better Half worked until it shut down in 1984.

I remember my mum and dad had a tv that you put 50p in for 4hours of tv time, it was from Radio Rentals I'm 36 now so must of been about 1981-1984 would always go off 1/2 way into the love boat on sundays.

we had a rented TV,when the rental ££ was in box

i would disconnected it

free TV

In my youth I worked for a while in the TSC Dept. (Time Savings Clock) of a Life Assurance Co. in L'pool. The insurance agent would give you a clock and you had to pop a florin (2/0d or 10p) into the slot at regular intervals to keep it ticking away. It had a sealed compartment in the base which the agent would undo every month or so and the loot inside was the basis of your premium on a Life Assurance Policy.

Although the actual clock mechanism was reasonable quality, the coin feed side was very crude and you could put anything in to keep it going. Payback time though when the agent called !

The clocks pop up on fleabay quite often. In fact there's a similar one on now (if you are quick). Item.130452764679

Radio Rentals coin boxes, people used to borrow money from the box and pay it back. Collectors used to come and find £5 notes in the coin box, usually the money was ok 'cos people didn't want to lose the tele. After a customer became trustworthy, sometimes the coin box was "accidently" left unlocked to avoid any further damage. Only problem with that was that some "friendly" visitors used to check if the coin box was unlocked when tenant wasn't watching.

All good fun, cowboys and indians

Beet there's one of those meters in one of the garages were I work in mint condition complete with new seals, I'll get a photograph up tomorrow

look forward to seeing it Ste

as a youngers in the 1940s the gas meter was a 2d, around about 1949-1950 electric cable was run along the street and we where connected up to the electric. The electric meter wa a shilling fed one. both these meters where in a cupboard by the front door. Even in those days there was ... THAT FORCED THE FRONT DOORS OF HOUSES AND BROKE INTO THE METERS TO ROB THE MONEY. There was nothing else in peoples house to rob in those days. the area i was brought up in was lower Tranmere.

From a report on the proceedings of Birkenhead Town Council in the Liverpool Mercury on the 6th June, 1895

I can relate to that exactly, except the gas was still paid for in pennies. It must have been a lot cheaper than the electricity! He would count out the pennies into shilling piles (12d = 1s) at a very fast rate off the edge of our kitchen table, which always fascinated little me. I used to try the same when he'd gone and usually ended up with a lot of them on the floor! Not wise, with the cracks in the floor boards.
Us kids had simple pleasures in those days!
Bri

Got some piccies bert, I cannot upload them from my phone so I'll put them up later
(I think it's the one you're talking about)