coal hole

By 1854, elaborately decorated Valentines were so popular that Punch ran a cartoon showing a burdened delivery man pouring thousands of cards into a family’s coal hole on the street.

Nowadays, few of us are likely to get that many cards — or have a coal hole — but the market is still burning hot.

The odds are even but Piqué, who could find light in a coal hole, is reassuringly upbeat.

Albert, who suffered health problems as a result of of his experiences in the war, threw them in the coal hole in disgust at the lack of welfare assistance offered to veterans after the first world war.

When it was originally uncovered deep beneath the abbey, it was thrown as rubbish into the coal hole before someone thought it should be rescued and fished it out again.