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23-08-2009, 07:44 PM
1

The washer women

Do you remember the old wash houses that used to be attached to tenement buildings ?

They were usually in the back yards, there was a large tenement building where I lived as a child and I remember the women hand washing the clothes, the wash houses had a massive cast iron cauldron built on a brick support, it held about 50 gallons of water.

Underneath the cauldron was a coal fire, after it was filled with water, (which was all carried by buckets from the houses) the fire was lit.
The women had "dollies", best way to describe them is they're like a 3 legged wooden stool with a 3 foot handle with a "T" bar sticking out from the seat.
The pummelled the washing with them, boy it was hard work.

Each house had a specific wash day to prevent arguments over who could use the "facility".

After the washing was done they had to hand-bale the cauldron empty, the hot water was not wasted however, they used it to wash the stairs and close floors, . . Ah the good old days when they had a hard time of it.
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23-08-2009, 07:49 PM
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Re: The washer women

No, but i wouldn;t as I grew up in the country.

I do remember the outhouse (can't remember what it was called) which I guess must have had gas and water, because the 'copper' lived in there - a huge boiler for the washing. I don't think it was used much - my poor mum used to stand at the kitchen sink, up to her elbows in suds. I remember a huge 'snake' of wrung out sheet, which she used to put up over her shoulder as she wrung out the lower parts of the sheet.
We had a mangle too - don't know why that wasn't used more. Maybe that was only used after the stuff had been rinsed.
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23-08-2009, 07:56 PM
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Re: The washer women

Originally Posted by dinahsmum ->
No, but i wouldn;t as I grew up in the country.

I do remember the outhouse (can't remember what it was called) which I guess must have had gas and water, because the 'copper' lived in there - a huge boiler for the washing. I don't think it was used much - my poor mum used to stand at the kitchen sink, up to her elbows in suds. I remember a huge 'snake' of wrung out sheet, which she used to put up over her shoulder as she wrung out the lower parts of the sheet.
We had a mangle too - don't know why that wasn't used more. Maybe that was only used after the stuff had been rinsed.
I was talking of the early 50's era DM, I recall the mangles and hand wringers too, the town where I lived had dozens of iron foundries and other heavy industries, I used to see the workmen coming home, so dirty the only clean part of them was their eyeballs, how the women got their work clothes clean is beyond me.
Most workplaces did'nt have showers for the men in those days.
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23-08-2009, 08:45 PM
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Re: The washer women

Interesting to read about; I'd never heard of that. Before we got our first washing machine after the War, my mom did the laundry in the basement in what were called set tubs...two big connected tubs, one for washing and one for rinsing, with a scrubbing board, and had to squeeze everything dry by hand and hang out on the line. Life was a lot harder in those days ...
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23-08-2009, 08:51 PM
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Re: The washer women

I am sure that women must have been much stronger physically than we are today.
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23-08-2009, 08:54 PM
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Re: The washer women

Yes - I think so too. But they looked worn out at a young age, didn't they?
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23-08-2009, 09:20 PM
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Re: The washer women

No wonder! Anyone remember carpet beaters? Guess I should put that in the other thread ......
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23-08-2009, 09:50 PM
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Re: The washer women

My Nan had a copper. My mum used the `Bagwash`. You bundled it all up in a huge cotton bag and us kids were sent to the laundry, where it was boiled. Then it came back and went through the mangle.
My mum then got one of the `new` washing machines then with a dinky little mangle on the top!
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23-08-2009, 10:59 PM
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Re: The washer women

My Mum had a boiler.........
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24-08-2009, 12:28 AM
10

Re: The washer women

I'm happy to report I can't
 
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