Washing up

The clothes were always washed on Mondays. There were no washing machines, so clothes had to be washed by hand, rinsed and then put in a wringer or mangle to remove the final water. They were then hung out to dry on the washing line to dry before being ironed with a solid flat iron, heated in an open fire. These were later replaced by electric irons and electric steam irons.

Whilst all of this seems really Victorian, my daughter can remember the mangle in one of sheds until the 90s (it might still be there....after all, who wants to carry a mangle?). There was also a fierce looking top loading washing machine, which looked very alien to a child of the 80s, used to watching the clothes going round and round in her mother's all in one glass fronted washer dryer.

Other resources