The continuing story of the house Joe and Mary Ann Scott lived in for over 50 years and the families that have lived here since. *
I remain fascinated by the mundane sides of everyday life, and, the grinding job of washing day. **
By the time Joe and Mary Ann moved into their brand-new home in 1915, there were plenty of labour saving devices to make the day less of an endurance.
In the cellar of Beech Road, there came as standard, the washing copper, which heated the water, was a big enough tub to take lots of clothes, and with a slopping cellar floor allowed the waster to drain away out through a grid at the front.
Next door still had their copper in place when we moved in, but there is no evidence that Joe ever installed one here.
The brick arch is there but no copper, which means that from the beginning they may have used one of the many laundries which existed in Chorlton, of which the one at the bottom of Beech Road, beside Acres Road, and the Queen and paisley on Crossland Road wee the nearest.
And that in turn means that they may never have perused the catalogue of Baxendale’s products who had been making all things iron from the early 1860s.
Of these products there were a range of mangles which the catalogue announced were “labour saving” and meant that “washing can be done in half the time it generally takes. No previous soaking is necessary, and less soap is needed”
I am old enough to remember both mother and Nana labouring over the machine, talking the wet clothes and putting them through the mangle.
Sometime in the 1950s we bought a state of the art Servis washing machine. The water still had to be added to the tub by hand and got rid of afterwards, and really it was just an electrified version of the copper, but it did have an electric mangle which came as part of the machine.
And our cast iron mangle vanished.
Many of course lingered on in cellars and outhouses, forgotten and rusty, before eventually being sold on, or making their way by degree into antique shops, having perhaps already sat in a secondhand shop.
I have George Cieslik, to thank for sharing the catalogue. I know that Baxendale were still on Miller Street in the 1960s but have yet to find out exactly when they closed.
To which I shall just add this comment from, Patricia Pennington who write, "We used to sing: 'Never let your braces dangle, One old sport , He got caught , Went right through the mangle. Round the rollers he went , by gum. Came our flat as linoleum. Now he's up in Kingdom come singing . Never let you braces dangle'".
Location; Chorlton
Pictures; the washing copper, 2016 from the collection of Andrew Simpson, and the sales catalogue of Baxendale, date unknown, George Cieslik
*The story of a house,
https://chorltonhistory.blogspot.co.uk/search/label/The%20story%20of%20a%20house
**The story of Chorlton-cum-Hardy, Andrew Simpson, 2012
By the time Joe and Mary Ann moved into their brand-new home in 1915, there were plenty of labour saving devices to make the day less of an endurance.
In the cellar of Beech Road, there came as standard, the washing copper, which heated the water, was a big enough tub to take lots of clothes, and with a slopping cellar floor allowed the waster to drain away out through a grid at the front.
Next door still had their copper in place when we moved in, but there is no evidence that Joe ever installed one here.
The brick arch is there but no copper, which means that from the beginning they may have used one of the many laundries which existed in Chorlton, of which the one at the bottom of Beech Road, beside Acres Road, and the Queen and paisley on Crossland Road wee the nearest.
Of these products there were a range of mangles which the catalogue announced were “labour saving” and meant that “washing can be done in half the time it generally takes. No previous soaking is necessary, and less soap is needed”
I am old enough to remember both mother and Nana labouring over the machine, talking the wet clothes and putting them through the mangle.
And our cast iron mangle vanished.
Many of course lingered on in cellars and outhouses, forgotten and rusty, before eventually being sold on, or making their way by degree into antique shops, having perhaps already sat in a secondhand shop.
I have George Cieslik, to thank for sharing the catalogue. I know that Baxendale were still on Miller Street in the 1960s but have yet to find out exactly when they closed.
To which I shall just add this comment from, Patricia Pennington who write, "We used to sing: 'Never let your braces dangle, One old sport , He got caught , Went right through the mangle. Round the rollers he went , by gum. Came our flat as linoleum. Now he's up in Kingdom come singing . Never let you braces dangle'".
Location; Chorlton
Pictures; the washing copper, 2016 from the collection of Andrew Simpson, and the sales catalogue of Baxendale, date unknown, George Cieslik
*The story of a house,
https://chorltonhistory.blogspot.co.uk/search/label/The%20story%20of%20a%20house
**The story of Chorlton-cum-Hardy, Andrew Simpson, 2012
No comments:
Post a Comment