Washday was a big operation (From The Westmorland Gazette)

Washday was a big operation

3:30pm Thursday 3rd November 2011 in Nostalgia

Joan Humphreys, aged 77 of Kendal, who grew up in Preston Patrick, recalls washing day in the 1940s

We had no electricity in our house at Preston Patrick until after 1945.

Washing day, of course, was always Monday, and mother would be busy in the washhouse with its boiler in the corner well before I set off for school.

The fire under the boiler had to be set to heat to boiling point for all the white cotton clothes.

The rest of the clothes were washed in a dolly tub, a large galvanised vessel, and then put through a wringer to get most of the water out.

When the washing was done and the clothes were on the line, the boiler would be emptied and the hot water used to kill any weeds which had appeared on the paths round the flower garden.

If the weather was good the washing was dry in good time, the ironing would begin.

At first Mother had flat irons, which were heated on the open fire and then enclosed in a silver coloured cover called a slipper, which stopped any residue from the fire being transferred to the clothes. Two irons were needed as they cooled rapidly. You sometimes see flat irons nowadays used as doorstops.

Later she had a charcoal iron. This was quite heavy and was hollow. The charcoal was heated on the open fire in a tin with holes in the sides, and then transferred to the iron.

After we had electricity fitted, we could have an electric iron which made the job so much easier, and then, of course, a little later we progressed to a steam iron, which was quite an innovation in the 1950s.