A History of the Ministry of Information, 1939-46
CARPETS.
INTRODUCTION
1. Objects of the Investigation
The primary objects were to discover:-
(a) The percentage of working-class homes that have no carpets on the floor.
(b) The percentage of working-class homes that have a carpet on the floor of one room only, and which room.
(c) The percentage of working-class homes that have carpets on the floor of two rooms, 3 rooms etc. only, and which rooms.
(d) The percentage of working-class homes that have a carpet on the first flight of stairs.
(e) The amount of money (including purchase-tax) that working-class housewives are willing to spend on a carpet for the floor, and for the stairs.
(f) The percentage of working-class housewives who say they would, or would not, buy room-carpets and stair-carpets if they were available at a price they could afford.
(g) The percentage of working-class housewives who say they are in need of carpet(s) for room(s), and which rooms.
(h) The percentage of working-class housewives who say they are in need of carpet(s) for stairs(s).
(i) The percentage of working-class housewives who say they would want to buy their carpets outright and on the hire-purchase system.
Apart from these objects, information was collected as to the approximate stock-dimension of each room in the home, carpeted and uncarpeted, and as to the type and state of repair of the stair-covering on the first flight of stairs.
Further information as to the dimensions and type (winders, etc.,) of the first flight of stairs is not presented in this report.
2. The Conduct of the Survey
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(a) The field work of the investigation was carried out between 14th May and 18th June, 1946 in 20 towns and 10 rural districts representative of England Scotland and Wales and, except where otherwise stated, the questions were asked of 975 housewives representative of the working-class. The sample was chosen so as to include appropriate numbers of households in each economic group, and in flats and in houses.
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(b) A working-class household was defined as one in which the basic weekly wage-rate * of the chief wage-earner was less than £5.10.0.
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3 (c) Rugs - defined as measuring less than 3 ft x 4 ft. 6 ins - were ignored except when they were found in rooms of less than this size (e.g. lavatories).
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(d) The length and breadth of each room - excluding recesses and bay-windows -were measured to the nearest foot with a tape-measure.
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(e) A terraced house was defined as any of 3 or more houses in a continuous row with no space between each house and the next.
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(f) A block-flat was defined as a flat in a block of flats originally built as flats.
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(g) A house-flat was defined as a flat in a house which has been converted by structural alterations into a number of self-contained flats.
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(h) A parlour was defined as a best sitting-room used only on special occasions.
[1] The economic classification used by the Social Survey is based on the wage rate of the chief wage earner in the family and no attempt is made to secure complete information about individual or family incomes. Many of the individuals in the sample used on this survey would, therefore, be earning much more in total then the maximum wage rate used to limit the population investigated.