Washing clothes.

[ninatoo]

We had one of those big washing machines with the mangle rollers at the top in the early 70's. I would have been about 12 when I was helping my Mum by doing the washing when no-one was home. I got my long hair caught in the roller .

Luckily mum had shown me the quick release lever so I used that, but not before a bit of panic and a sore head!

I watched The Steamie not that long ago. I didn't know my mum had the video until I was talking about my genealogy research and was asking her about the old chores. I took it home and watched it straight away. It was fascinating for me as we left Scotland when I was four.

Nina

[rye470]

I would just like to say a huge big thank you to Helen Baird.

At the bottom of my post I asked if anyone had seen the dvd of 'the Steamie' could they let me know. Helen has e-mailed me and offered to send me one which needs a good home. I can guarantee that it will have a very good home. Once again, I will be able to get through 'the Bells' pretending I'm back home and the 'first foot' will be at the door soon.

Once again Helen, Many Thanks.

[sheilajim]

Hi All

This post brings back memories of horror. When I was very little I remember my Scottish mother washing clothes in the washing machine that we had. She absolutely hated it, and so did we all.

The machine had to be rolled in to the kitchen, and hooked up to the hot water faucet. Soap Flakes were added, along with some weird stuff called "bluing".Then the white clothes, sheets, etc. were put in and were agitated for about half an hour, then put through the ringer, that my mom was scared of. Then the old water was drained out and new fresh water, put in for the rinse cycle. The clothing was put back in the machine for the rinse, and when that was finished, through the ringer again, then hung out on the line to dry. Then the whole cycle had to be repeated for colored clothes, then darks. It was bad enough in the summer, but the winter was even worse!
This was in Canada, and in the winter nothing really dried completly when hung outside. Clothes would be so stiff, that they were like cardboard, and the drying had to be completed inside. Inside lines were strung up in the bathroom, kitchen, and even in the dining room. The whole place looked like a mess!

I was very young when this happened, and by the time that I was 8 or 9 years old, Mom gave up, and sent almost everything out to be washed in a laundry. They would pick up the dirty clothes, and send them back all clean and folded.

Mom told me that it was even worse for her mother in Scotland, when she was a girl. Something about some boiling thingy or other, outside the house.
I agree that clothes line dryed smell very nice, but every now and then some birds would "insult" the clothes, as they were hung out to dry, and they had to be washed again!

I will take today's washers and dryers anytime. I just wish that they would also fold them for us.

Regards

Sheila

P.S. Does anyone know what those boiling thingys were in Scotland, back in the early part of the 20th century, before the 1930's.

[emanday]

Hi sheilajim,

....snipped....
P.S. Does anyone know what those boiling thingys were in Scotland, back in the early part of the 20th century, before the 1930's
....snipped....

If you are talking about a clothes boiler, they were still around well into the late 50's, I know cause I was born in the late 40's and my Mum had one, but ours was very upmarket ; it was in the corner of the kitchen . I was about six or seven when she finally got of rid of it to make space for the washing machine.

BTW: The boiler came with the house, a brand new prefab. Prefabs dwellers had a standing joke; Forget your key? Borrow the neighbour's can opener!

[Russell]

Hi Sheila

Communal wash houses were in use right up to the 1950's in some areas.

Every 'close' had an outbuilding at the back on the communal drying green. Even some of the Edinburgh 'stairs' had one
When you first moved into a close you were quickly informed which day was your washing day, and which was your day to clean the close. You had to apply the correct 'whitening' to the risers of the communal stair and apply Cardinal Red to the close steps. In closes where they thpught they were better off, they paid a wee lady to come in and do this for them.

On your washing day the job everybody hated was cleaning out the fire under the 'Copper' all the ashes from the previous days use had to be cleared out before you could set the fire for that days boiling. The copper - if it was a good close- more often it was galvanised steel, boiler was about 3 feet wide and 3 feet deep raised up on brickwork so the fire could burn underneath. Since the household coal was usually kept in a bunker in the kitchen every lump had to be carried downstairs in a bucket once the fire was going. If you had no kindling newspaper was rolled into twists instead of the sticks but it was more difficult to light the fire that way.
It took ages to fill the boiler from the cold tap (the only tap!) If the tap was over a Belfast sink the water had to be transferred in buckets to the copper.
Every house had a long spirtle - all bleached and smooth from stirring boiling washing for years. This was used to stir the washing round so that every part was wetted and washed.
Being a boy, and quite young, I was banished from the actual washing process probably on safety grounds. A scalding hot sheet on the end of the spirtle was a lethal weapon. it would be transferred to the sink and the water spilt would run away into the drain in the middle of the floor.

The rope had to be put up each time across the drying green and to get the four sides plus a central cross of rope was a feat that would tax a Geometer. Once it was pegged out with the round wooden pegs the tinkers sold round the doors, a long pole with a notch at the end was used to lift the washing lines clear of the ground.
Every bit of equipment had to be cleared out of the wash-house so the next person could use it.

Now I know it's not just elephants who never forget

Russell

[davran]

Having spend 8 years of my early childhood in Johannesburg, we returned to GB in 1959 when I was ten. Imagine the shock of leaving all 'mod cons' in the city to living in the wilds of Lincolnshire with no running hot water and no flush loo. We arrived at Grandma's house at the end of October. She lived in the old station house in the hamlet where she had been the village schoolmistress. I can't really remember how the water was heated in the winter, but there was an old range and we had to bath in front of this in a tin bath. The toilet was an Elsan out the back, the contents of which had to be emptied into a hole dug in the garden!! There was also a 'proper' bath in the outside boilerhouse, where there was an old-fashioned copper for heating the water. This bath was only used in the summer because it was so cold out there.

I think the main cooking was done on a 'Baby Belling' cooker.

The village school consisted of 19 pupils aged 5-11 and one schoolmistress. The toilets there were also of the wooden-seated, hole-in-the-ground variety.

[Anne H]

I love Joette’s stories and all the responses...they bring back some great memories! I’d never heard of the “steamie” until about 10 years ago when I saw the video…it was hilarious!

I do remember what was probably our first washing machine…wasn’t very big, was cream coloured and had a wringer. I also remember the big boiler we had where my mother would first boil the clothes (I think the boiler also had a wringer...not sure). She’d take the clothes out of the boiler with a wooden thing because they were boiling hot, then put them in the washing machine, put them through the wringer again and hang outside to dry…always loved the fun we had when you could stand the clothes by themselves.

I have the paid receipt from 1949 for that washing machine…it was either a Norris or Hover (can’t make it out) and cost the grand sum of 31 pounds 5 shillings. Underneath the word “Paid” is a tuppenny stamp with the date written across it…I wonder why they put a stamp on it…anybody know?

Regards,
Anne H

[jollybeggar0]

I have a very nostalgic and humbling photograph of women and children in Dalmellington, Ayrshire, doing their washing in the Muck Burn about 1904. This stream ran through the village as it does today. Perhaps puts things in context when you realise that we take so much for granted in life when a few generations past, washing was done in local streams.

Donald L Reid
Local Historian on Doon & Garnock Valleys of Ayrshire.

[sheilajim]

Hi Russell

That sounds something like what my mother talked about. She also said that another woman would help my grandmother on washday. I wonder how long it took to do the week's wash, in those days. I am afraid to ask how my great grandmother washed her clothes!

I know that with my mother's late 1930's wringer washer, it took the whole day, from about 9:00 AM till 5:00 PM. There were several white, washes. It was usually done on a Monday, and I think that is where the term Blue Monday originated. I know that she absolutely hated wash day! By the late 40's or early 50's, she gave it up, for the most part, by sending most of the clothing out to be laundered.

She didn't mention whether her mother hated wash day as much as she did.

Unlike myself, most people, from the recollections of other posts by Joette(who started this post), and others, seem to look back on wash day with fondness.

Modern washer and dryers came into popular use, in the late 50's,at least in the neighborhood of Montreal where I lived. Laudromats came in during the early sixties.
Though they have been improved upon, there hasn't been any great
revolutionary changes in how clothes are washed since then.

I could live without television, but not without a washer and dryer.

Regards

Sheila

[ninatoo]

When my mum married in the early sixties, she used to wash the clothes by hand. They didn't have much money back then. I have often heard about her skint knuckles nipping.

Nina