Monday washdays: the weekly laundry in working class London in the early 1900s

It always amazed me how women used to manage on washdays when I was a child in the early 1900s. There was no running hot water and there were no detergents, washing machines, spin dryers, tumble dryers or rubber gloves. It was just hard physical grind.

Washday was once a week, always on a Monday, and it took the whole day. There was no time for much else, including preparing meals.

Washday started somewhere between five and six o’clock in the morning when the copper in the scullery was lit to heat the water. Filling it took about six bucketfuls, all drawn from the single brass cold water tap over the sink. There was of course no running hot water.

The whites (sheets, tablecloths and handkerchiefs) were separated because they had to be treated differently: the whites for boiling and the coloureds for soaking and then washing.

Once the water in the copper was hot, some of it was baled out into a wooden tub and the coloureds were put into that to soak. The whites were put into the rest of the water in the copper and set to boil with soap and soda. We lived in a hard water area, so the soda was necessary to prevent the soap producing scum. The soap was carbolic, made by Sunlight.

It was while the whites were boiling and the coloureds were being soaked that we had breakfast.

After breakfast the coloureds were washed in the wooden tub. Depending on the wash load, some of the coloureds were washed by forcing them up and down onto a washboard, a corrugated metal or glass sheet in a wooden frame. My mother had to stand to do this in order to get enough pressure to force the clothes onto the ridges in order to get the dirt out, and it was very hard, hot, steamy work.

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.

All the washing had to be rinsed several times. It was put through the mangle to get rid of as much dirty water as possible and then let drop into a bath of cold rinsing water. It had to be mangled after each rinse.

 

 

The mangle was a heavy contraption about four or five feet high with a handle that turned two rollers. Wet items were fed through the rollers which squeezed out the water. There was a screw on top to adjust the distance between the rollers according to the thickness of the fabric. For blankets, the screw was let out as far as possible. Buttons on clothes were made of woven linen so that they wouldn't break under the pressure. A lot of energy was needed for mangling, When I came home from school at dinner time [lunch time], I had to help by holding the sheets as straight as I could while my mother turned the handle of the mangle. It was by no means unusual for children to get their fingers caught in the rollers.

As the mangle was so large and took up so much room, it was kept outside the back door with a sheet of tarpaulin over it to protect it from the weather. In good weather the mangling could be done outside, but in bad weather the mangle was rolled into the scullery.

The women had to be strong to lift sheets and tablecloths in and out of the various baths because wet washing was much heavier than a dry load.

The baths were oval galvanised ones of various sizes, with handles either side so that they could be hung up on the wall when not in use. The final rinse was in blue water from a bluebag which was a small muslin cloth tied round a small cube of blue substance and kept in a bowl of water. It was important to be sure that the bag never leaked because otherwise little particles of blue would come out and leave small blue dots on the washing. Incidentally the blue bag was also used to dab on bites and stings to ease the pain. The tablecloths would be starched. Starch was bought in granules, looking rather like dry stem ginger, and it had to be made up specially every time it was used, It was first mixed with a little cold water, and then boiling water was quickly poured onto it. If the water was not hot enough, the starch would not thicken, and if the stirring wasn't rapid enough, the starch would go lumpy. The process was rather like making custard or sauce.

After rinsing, as much water as possible had to be removed before the clothes could be hung outside on the line to dry. Small items were wrung out but most things had to be put through the mangle again.

Then the washing had to be dried, outside if possible but otherwise in the kitchen. Then began the clearing up.

This website Join me in the 1900s is also known as Join me in the 1900's and is © Pat Cryer.