The 'old fashioned peat' is moss peat and its extraction and sale is causing harm to the environment.
The other type of peat in the UK is heather peat as found in the peat bogs of Scotland. This is useful as a burning fuel but contains too much sulphur to be good in the garden.

Thanks, I was trying to find out which would have been the peat used by my Dad for rhodies - ?

It would have been moss peat, Julia, simply called peat in those days.

Thank you.