No earth wire in wall light fitting?!?

[Electricalnoob96]

I live in an ex council house in manchester which I imagine was built around the 1940s.

Upon renovating the severely outdated living room, I removed two ceramic wall fitted lights that had switches and were independent to the main light fitting in the room. I didn’t really pay attention to the wiring when I removed them, and they’re now amongst the piles of rubbish at a tip so I can’t provide pictures of the actual lights.

I’ve bought two new black metal light fittings that I was going to install, but it’s just come to my attention that the wires for said wall lights don’t have an earth, just a brown live and a blue neutral, I’ve attached a photo of the wires…

What the hell am I supposed to do with this now!? I’m not a qualified sparky but everything is telling me to stay well clear of even trying to install new lights onto these cables, especially metal ones, when there isn’t an earth. Anybody know if it’s safe to install new lights here without an earth? If not how was it ever safe for lights to be fitted here without an earth!?

If I can’t safely fit lights how would I go about making the wires safe before plastering over, I have no idea where these wires would even lead to… living room light switch didn’t switch these on or off so I wouldn’t even know where these cables lead off to and ideally don’t wanna be pulling the walls apart!

 

[James]

Class 2 light fitting is the easy way to go.
they will have a symbol of a square in a square on them
most will be plastic but there are some class 2 metal fittings out there.

 

[littlespark]

Looks like someone’s used 2 core flex.

I’d be surprised if they’re running in prescribed zones.
Be a good idea to check for rcd protection on that circuit.

 

[brianmoooore]

The two core flex is the most concerning aspect of this. It strongly suggests a DIY installation, so who knows what other problems are lying in wait, apart from the lack of cpc.