Image by David Grimshaw from Pixabay
I was putting my washing on the other day and suddenly thought about how washing clothes has changed since my grandmother’s day.
This wasn’t in the 1900s, but the 1950s that I remember.
My grandma had what she called a ‘dolly tub’. This was a metal barrel with an open top. I don’t really know what it was made of, but probably galvanised zinc. At least, that’s what it looked like.
First she would boil some water, then pour it into the tub. This would take several pans as she didn’t have a boiler.
Earlier we’d grated soap. There was no such thing as washing powder, which, of course, is a detergent, not a soap. The soap was allowed to dissolve in the hot water before the clothes were added.
She then used a ‘posser’ to pound the clothes. This was hard work. Her posser was copper, but earlier ones were wood. These wooden ones looked a bit like a three-legged stool (but with more legs) on a long handle. Grandma’s was like an upturned bowl with a lid and holes drilled in it to allow water to escape.
If clothes were particularly dirty or stained, she would rub them on a washboard with more soap and perhaps a scrubbing brush.
After the clothes had been pounded clean, they were put through the mangle. This had to be turned by hand, and it squeezed the excess water out.
Then the dolly tub was emptied and clean water added. The clothes were put back and once more possed to rinse the soap out. They had to be rinsed at least twice, preferably more. Once again passed through the mangle.
When all this was finished, grandma put out the clothes line and hung the washing on it. Pushing it up with a clothes prop, which was a long piece of wood with a v cut out at the top.
Washing day was a strenuous day in those days.
Then she got a washing machine.
Unlike those of today, it loaded at the top and had a paddle to churn the clothes. No more strenuous possing. It still had a mangle on the top, but it was run by electricity and not by hand turning a wheel. Clothes still had to be hung out in the garden to dry though, or hung on a clothes horse around the open fire if the weather was wet..
Washing took a whole day. No wonder women in those days stayed at home and didn’t go out to work. No labour saving devices!
Discover more from Dragons Rule OK. V.M.Sang (author)
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Dragons Rule OK. V.M.Sang (author) 
Thanks for describing this, VM. That sounds like backbreaking work.
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I remember my mom using the “washing machine” you describe, Viv. My mom’s arm got stuck in the mangle – one of my earliest memories. I still hang my summer wash on the line, but I’m glad the washing process has become a lot safer and easier. What memories!
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Your comment triggered a memory. My grandmother also got her arm ‘mangled’. I’d forgotten that. Dangerous things. As they were electricity powered, they didn’t stop when an arm went through!
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Gives me the shivers.
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Me, too.
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What a chore that was! I get tired just thinking about it.
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Me too.
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Amazing.
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We don’t realise how easy we have it nowadays
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You’re right there.
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I remember those days also. Though I was not familiar with my grandmothers’ methods, I remember the washing machine my mother had which consisted of round enamel tank with an agitator inside, and a pair of rollers (wringers) mounted on the side over the tub that squeezed the water out the clothing item draining the water right back into the tub. An electric (sometimes a gas-powered) motor ran the agitator and wringers. Here is one that resembles my mother’s machine.
I also remember going to a public laundry where they had something like the agitators mounted in the bottom of open tubs along with other tubs with fresh water in them for rinsing the clothes. Of course the wringer were mounted on the side of the tubs to wring them “dry”! I helped my mother take wet clothes out of one tub and transferred them to the next for rinsing or further washing.
Thanks for this almost forgotten blast from the past!
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Yes but just think about how green that was.
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You are right.
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What a history washing machines have.
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I could have gone on to talk about the invention of the spin dryer, a separate machine at first that replaced the mangle, then it was combined in one machine as a ‘twin tub’. I had one of those.
Soon, rich people had the automatic machine we know today, but they were too expensive for the likes of us. I don’t think they had all the programs our modern machines have, though.
Then came the tumble dryer. Now we don’t even need to peg the washing out! (Although I do when it’s fine.)
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