Street and Car Lighting
Street lights had little hoods. In those days the residential streets were illuminated by a single bulb beneath an obtuse mosaic mirror reflector, and these were 200 yards or more apart. They seemed OK to us as we hadn't experienced modern lighting that is now so powerful. But even these low power street lights had to be hidden from aircraft so the electricity company put green Rexine hoods on the light, so that no light went upwards, but this rather restricted the spread at pavement level.
Car lights were hooded completely, with just a forward-facing letterbox slot that allowed some illumination by the single headlight, but not much. (In those days dipped lights turned the offside headlight off and tilted the nearside down to the kerb). Of course, there weren't many cars. As soon as war broke out, petrol was rationed and no private cars were permitted on the roads unless they were for official use by the Army, NAAFI or similar approved organisation. I remember Reg Savage has a splendid 1938 Rover in his garage that could not be used, but he also had a khaki Ford 8. This looked like an Army car, but as he was a shopkeeper before the war, he was now seconded to the Naval, Army and Air Force Institution (NAFFI) to organise and supply their depots in local military establishments.
Our Morris Ten was laid up. This involved putting it in the garage on bricks. In those days tyres and inner tubes were pretty poor and would perish the quicker if left with the weight of a car pressing on them.
People also drained petrol from its tank, and water from the radiator. Also, some people removed the rota arm, but this wasn't necessary until after the war. With no cars on the road you can understand why I'd not see another Austin 12 for many years.
Meanwhile, my father had a van. It belonged to his business and with the younger staff sent to the front, he became van driver as well as continuing as managing director. There was a little white paper disc on the windscreen, just above the Licence disc that gave a diagrammatic map of the territory the van may cover. Ours was limited to Cardiff and its suburbs. You certainly could not go up the valleys or to the next county. Deliveries of that sort had to go by carriers. Apart from the territorial restrictions, petrol rationing for vans made it impossible to go far.