I was chatting to an old hand about driving back in the '60s and he mentioned that he used to have a paraffin cab heater - how he described it was a lamp with shutters so you could block the light and just get the heat from it. You just had to remember to set it in the footwell (so that hopefully it expired before you!) and crack the windows open a little.
That sounds like a really dangerous idea, but also like something that really could have been a thing!
Was I having my leg pulled, or did you guys really used to use such things to keep warm?
Here, in France, some drivers used to improvise very dangerous heaters, such as a big metal cans filled with sand and alcohol (meth’s). With your guy’s system, the smell must have been unbearable!
One of our old drivers previously worked for Loxleys of Bonsall and he told me that when he drove an O type Bedford for them he had a household Valor paraffin stove in the passenger side during winter time.
Pete.
windrush:
One of our old drivers previously worked for Loxleys of Bonsall and he told me that when he drove an O type Bedford for them he had a household Valor paraffin stove in the passenger side during winter time.
Pete.
Had none of those drivers heard of carbon monoxide poisoning?,incredible!
David
Early 60s one of the driver where I worked dove an s18 2 stroke foden . winter time he had a big paraffin pressure heater strapped on the low engine cover in the daytime . No need to worry about carbon monoxide , there were plenty of draughts to disperse it , but you could smell him coming . Dave
5thwheel:
windrush:
One of our old drivers previously worked for Loxleys of Bonsall and he told me that when he drove an O type Bedford for them he had a household Valor paraffin stove in the passenger side during winter time.
Pete.
Had none of those drivers heard of carbon monoxide poisoning?,incredible!
David
I doubt it, same as none of us knew about the dangers of asbestos, radiation, skin cancer from too much sun etc.
Pete.
slowlane:
I was chatting to an old hand about driving back in the '60s and he mentioned that he used to have a paraffin cab heater - how he described it was a lamp with shutters so you could block the light and just get the heat from it. You just had to remember to set it in the footwell (so that hopefully it expired before you!) and crack the windows open a little.
That sounds like a really dangerous idea, but also like something that really could have been a thing!
Was I having my leg pulled, or did you guys really used to use such things to keep warm?
No you weren’t having you leg pulled. When I was 6 or 7 years old I shared the passenger side of an Atkinson with a Valor paraffin heater. The driver also chain smoked 80 Capstan a day so if passive smoking exists then it’s a miracle I’m still here.
I recall my Father had a paraffin heater that was actually intended to keep your car warm over night, it was about the size of a large frying pan and not much higher, you sat it in the footwell. He did use it in the wagon occasionally but I don’t think it was very successful. He did tell me though that they would grab a road works lamp and put it in the cab between their feet to try and keep them from freezing again I doubt they gave off much heat to help. Household Paraffin heaters though were a different matter we had one in the kitchen for years made by Sankey, it was the first thing my Mother lit when she got up before anyone else in the morning and lovely and warm it was too when came downstairs for breakfast, she put a pan of milk on top too to warm up for our cornflakes, I still have hot milk on them today! Franky.
RE ; roadworkers paraffin lamps, back in the days of parking lights it wasn’t uncommon to see one hooked to the offside window of a parked car 
Frankydobo:
I recall my Father had a paraffin heater that was actually intended to keep your car warm over night, it was about the size of a large frying pan and not much higher, you sat it in the footwell. He did use it in the wagon occasionally but I don’t think it was very successful. He did tell me though that they would grab a road works lamp and put it in the cab between their feet to try and keep them from freezing again I doubt they gave off much heat to help. Household Paraffin heaters though were a different matter we had one in the kitchen for years made by Sankey, it was the first thing my Mother lit when she got up before anyone else in the morning and lovely and warm it was too when came downstairs for breakfast, she put a pan of milk on top too to warm up for our cornflakes, I still have hot milk on them today! Franky.
I bought something like that Frying pan heater Franky. I think the one I got was described as a greenhouse heater, to keep the frost off the plants. I didn’t use it when moving, the Mastiff heater worked fine, I thought it would make a good night heater. It didn’t make any difference to the temperature of the cab, but everything, including me, smelt of paraffin! It lasted one miserable night.
John
Brilliant! Thanks guys. I thought it sounded just dangerous enough to be real 
I don’t think I’ve ever been around paraffin, so have no idea about the smell of it. I’m guessing that it’s fairly petrol-y.
Paraffin had it’s own distinct odour: the nearest I can think of is standing behind a jet aircraft when it’s taking off. Paraffin and Avtur are very close cousins, with paraffin being more abrasive due to not being so highly refined.
Every house and shop seemed to have a paraffin heater in the fifties. Esso had cartoon type adverts on TV for the ‘Esso Blue Dealer’
Bum, bum, bum, Esso Blue!
Imagine the ‘Four Candles’ sketch, with the brown overcoated assistant - except it was in black and white! Can’t remember the exact plot, but it involved the overcoated assistant and a beautiful girl. He becomes tongue tied and calls himself the Esso Blee Dooler!
This became quite a catchphrase in those innocent Days!
John
HEATER think youselves lucky you had something. I drove for a fairly large company in the early 80s at the time they had bedford tk vans ,serviced and repaired by a tin pot transport company. One winter the heater matrix clogged up rendering the heater u/s so the gaffer says nip down and get it fixed so what do they do ,they take the heater out and join the two water pipes up and send me on my merry way with a 7x8 inch hole in the middle of the floor. This particular winter was an unusually cold one and the best I could do was fill a two and half litre plastic bottle with boiling water and stick it between my legs while driving then on my lap when it had cooled enough to bear. The same people because my van was in for repairs took the engine out to put in one of our other motors because the driver had blown his engine up, I ended up with a second hand engine out of scrapper with a crack down the back of the block the engine would run for about half an hour before it needed filling with water after numerous defect rerports and nothing done it got to a point were after filling the radiator with what water I had in plastic bottles then when that ran out stopping on the hard shoulder for water out of cow troughs, streams ,rivers even salt water puddles on the beach along the coast road from Barrow in Furness after a week of this I decided an executive decision was needed so coming down from the lakes Just kept on going till I had no water just before the tickled trout one piston blew it ran till the hill just before what was then the Anderton services and a couple more pistons blew so that was that it took about an hour for the tin pots to tow me in then it got a decent motor after that .Oh yeah the heater it took a couple of weeks before that got replaced. Have a good day yawl.
John West:
Every house and shop seemed to have a paraffin heater in the fifties. Esso had cartoon type adverts on TV for the ‘Esso Blue Dealer’
Bum, bum, bum, Esso Blue!
Or this. 
youtube.com/watch?v=FJTcScAQvds
My first ever job was at my Uncle Bert’s wallpaper and paint shop. My job was to go up the yard and fill the customer’s cans with Esso Blue. They came from all over town to get Esso Blue because it didn’t smell like the pink stuff.
