No house that I have ever lived in has ever been connected or used electricity. In the 1970s British houses went through a crisis. This meant there was no electricity in homes across the UK and in particular the Midlands. For us it meant several things. It meant that wands did not go “pop” if you used them in muggle towns, and it meant that you didn’t need to come up with an excuse for not having power in your house because nobody had power in their house.

Everyone’s power came from candles, fires and street lights. My mother was still fairly young at this point and our house had never been put “back on the grid”. It made no difference to us. We didn’t need it. If people asked, we would tell people that we were never there anyway and it was expensive to be put back on. How many people really believed this I’m not sure.

Plugs were always an interesting thing to have and a great way, along with batteries, to pretend that something is being powered, when in actual fact it is only “resting”. Mr Weasley always had a huge collection that he would let me use in his garage that I “tested” for him to various degrees.