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!