100 Years of one house in Chorlton .........Part Four

This is the continuing story of one house in Chorlton, which Joe Scott the builder made for himself and his wife Mary Ann in 1911 http://chorltonhistory.blogspot.com/2011/12/100-years-of-one-house-in-chorlton-part.html.

I don’t know if Mary Ann had a servant but it is unlikely, so wash day was all down to her. This was both a time consuming activity and an ardours one.

The clothes would first be separated and placed in different wooden tubs to soak. The sheets and bed linen went in to one tub to soak in warm water and a little dissolved soda. The greasy clothes and dirtier things went into a second tub.

The clothes would then be taken out of the tub and rinsed and wrung before being washed, which involved applying carbolic soap to the garment and rubbing the material together in hot water. Alternatively she may have used a wash board.

Alternatively or additionally the washing was poked and agitated around in the hot soapy water with a wooden contraption called a dolly. There were some quite sophisticated ones with handles and 'stumpy 'legs' but it was also common just to use a wooden stick. This also served to lift the washing out of the water for rinsing, although wooden tongs were also used.

The clothes then had to be rinsed several times as well being put through the mangle which got rid of some of the dirty water. Finally they would be put in the copper of hot water and left for upwards of 90 minutes before being rinsed, first in hot water and finally again in cold water, and then rung out and hung out. Mrs Beeton writing over a half century earlier also advised putting the clothes into a canvas bag before putting in the copper to protect the clothes from the scum and sides of the copper. All this done and the clothes drying it only remained to wash the tubs and clean the copper.

Difficult as washday was, the volume of washing was nowhere near as much as today. Underwear was certainly washed frequently, but thick top clothes tended have to last with just dirty spots being sponged off. One sheet from each bed was washed weekly with the last week's top sheet becoming the next week's bottom sheet. The blankets were washed once a year in good drying weather in the summer.
Picture;
from a page of the first edition of Woman's Weekly November 1911