Author Topic: 'Pairs' of blankets?! (Completed -- thank you!)  (Read 2971 times)

Offline CelticAnnie

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'Pairs' of blankets?! (Completed -- thank you!)
« on: Friday 17 November 17 16:49 GMT (UK) »
Found this report in an Inverness newspaper of 1831:

  "On Friday night last a house in Davis Square, Green of Muirtown, was entered while the family were asleep, and several pairs of blankets and other articles carried off."

I'm intrigued by the reference here to pairs of blankets. In what context in the home would you specifically use two blankets?  I can understand pairs of sheets, of course -- one over and one under you on the bed; but why designate blankets in pairs?  Could this even be a specifically Scottish or Highland thing?

I know it's a stupid little detail really; but I've always been interested in our ancestors living arrangements, and so if anyone has any ideas on this topic, I should be very interested to hear them!

Many thanks.

CELTICANNIE
PEPLOE/PEPLOW: Shropshire, Inverness
DAVIES: Inverness, Montgomeryshire, Ruabon
OWEN: Edinburgh, Aberystwyth, Middlesex, Essex, Kendal, Berwick, Montgomeryshire
TROLLOPE: Warwickshire, Middlesex
TAYLOR & McKAY: Montreal, Canada

Offline Treetotal

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Re: 'Pairs' of blankets?!
« Reply #1 on: Friday 17 November 17 16:59 GMT (UK) »
Strange...I would only apply the term to sheets too...unless they were a matching pair?
Carol
CAPES Hull. KIRK  Leeds, Hull. JONES  Wales,  Lancashire. CARROLL Ireland, Lancashire, U.S.A. BROUGHTON Leicester, Goole, Hull BORRILL  Lincolnshire, Durham, Hull. GROOM  Wishbech, Hull. ANTHONY St. John's Nfld. BUCKNALL Lincolnshire, Hull. BUTT Harbour Grace, Newfoundland. PARSONS  Western Bay, Newfoundland. MONAGHAN  Ireland, U.S.A. PERRY Cheshire, Liverpool.
 
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Offline stanmapstone

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Re: 'Pairs' of blankets?!
« Reply #2 on: Friday 17 November 17 17:04 GMT (UK) »
From the  Sheffield Independent - Tuesday 18 May 1920
Census Information is Crown Copyright, from www.nationalarchives.gov.uk

Offline CelticAnnie

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Re: 'Pairs' of blankets?!
« Reply #3 on: Friday 17 November 17 17:09 GMT (UK) »
Now I'm even more intrigued!  Thank you, Stan!  And thank you, Treetotal, for sharing your thoughts.

CELTICANNIE
PEPLOE/PEPLOW: Shropshire, Inverness
DAVIES: Inverness, Montgomeryshire, Ruabon
OWEN: Edinburgh, Aberystwyth, Middlesex, Essex, Kendal, Berwick, Montgomeryshire
TROLLOPE: Warwickshire, Middlesex
TAYLOR & McKAY: Montreal, Canada


Offline groom

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Re: 'Pairs' of blankets?!
« Reply #4 on: Friday 17 November 17 17:17 GMT (UK) »
By googling it seems that "Blankets were always sold in pairs & quilts always singly."  I can't find an explanation though, unless it was thought you always needed more than one blanket on your bed.
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Offline Rena

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Re: 'Pairs' of blankets?!
« Reply #5 on: Friday 17 November 17 17:21 GMT (UK) »
I was brought up in the north. We always had a pair of blankets on our bed - plus an old army coat on top of them in winter.
Aberdeen: Findlay-Shirras,McCarthy: MidLothian: Mason,Telford,Darling,Cruikshanks,Bennett,Sime, Bell: Lanarks:Crum, Brown, MacKenzie,Cameron, Glen, Millar; Ross: Urray:Mackenzie:  Moray: Findlay; Marshall/Marischell: Perthshire: Brown Ferguson: Wales: McCarthy, Thomas: England: Almond, Askin, Dodson, Well(es). Harrison, Maw, McCarthy, Munford, Pye, Shearing, Smith, Smythe, Speight, Strike, Wallis/Wallace, Ward, Wells;Germany: Flamme,Ehlers, Bielstein, Germer, Mohlm, Reupke

Offline Skoosh

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Re: 'Pairs' of blankets?!
« Reply #6 on: Friday 17 November 17 19:03 GMT (UK) »
Rena was poor!  ;D 

 How come a single item like drawers come in pairs?

Skoosh.

Online Jebber

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Re: 'Pairs' of blankets?!
« Reply #7 on: Friday 17 November 17 19:45 GMT (UK) »
After living in Germany I converted to duvets long before they became fashionable in the UK, but I remember buying balankets in pairs when I was first married.
CHOULES All ,  COKER Harwich Essex & Rochester Kent 
COLE Gt. Oakley, & Lt. Oakley, Essex.
DUNCAN Kent
EVERITT Colchester,  Dovercourt & Harwich Essex
GULLIVER/GULLOFER Fifehead Magdalen Dorset
HORSCROFT Kent.
KING Sturminster Newton, Dorset. MONK Odiham Ham.
SCOTT Wrabness, Essex
WILKINS Stour Provost, Dorset.
WICKHAM All in North Essex.
WICKHAM Medway Towns, Kent from 1880
WICKHAM, Ipswich, Suffolk.

Offline Countryquine

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Re: 'Pairs' of blankets?!
« Reply #8 on: Friday 17 November 17 20:46 GMT (UK) »
My mum got pairs of blankets as wedding presents in 1955.  I have to say she kept everything for 'best' and we used army surplus grey scratchy ones through the winter.   The best ones were gradually brought into service as the scratchy grey ones wore out but now, as we clear out her home to move her into a residential home, we have come across blankets still unused.