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Washday Copper Boilers Mangles

Di.Poppitt

Di.Poppitt

GONE BUT NOT FORGOTTEN
This is the old mangle I have in the garden, I close it up during the winter months. The wooden posher is exactly like the one mom used every Monday, it hardly bears thinking about does it girls.

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Gail still gets her fingers caught in the one we've got when she rushes things on a busy washday. :p If that's not bad enough those wooden rollers can leave the odd splinter behind as well. :Aah:
 
Happy memories Di I still use ours every Monday without fail, if it rains I get the Washday Blues. I leave the Lady to use those electric things well I heard that Wimmin are better at setting up Videos.

With this arrangement she has usually finished all the washing before I've wrung a pair of socks out on the Mangle and as a Gentle & Kind BARman of the old school like Oisin its only fair I think.:D
 
the mangle

where did the mangle come from.? There was always one in the wash house but who provided it? Did the builder put it in or did the first tenants have a collection to buy it-unlikely i would think!
 
Lovely flowers Di...it all looks so colourful. The mangle fits in perfectly.
My Mom had the dolly tub, posher and a short stick for putting clothes through her mangle but it wasn't the old type it was metal with rubber rollers and a brute at getting hold of your fingers:Aah:. Our neighbour Mrs. Paddon had
a heavy duty mangle I remember. You men are awful:D
 
The stick your mom had Jennyann would probably also have been used to get the boiling hot washing out of the boiler. Mom had one and it was always called the boiler stick, and you didn't answer back if she had it in her hand:Aah: Shame Gail and Bev don't keep one in their kitchens :rolleyes:
 
Well, come to mention it Di. The boiler stick was used for getting the
very hot whites out of the boiler as well as guiding those heavy bed sheets
up towards the menacing rubber rollers. ... and yes it was used as a threat for
children who liked to slope off when chores were to be done:D
 
That girls was a deadly weapon in our Mothers hands, felt that a few times I can tell you.:Aah:
 
My memory of the mangle, when we bought our first house, newly built, we ordered our dining furniture from Times Furnishing Birmingham. unfortunately, on the day we moved in, our furniture did not arrive. not only the dining furniture, but the lounge furniture as well. we spent our first weekend sat on front seats removed from our A35 and ate our meals sat around a folded down "mandle" Goffy
 
At least you had a great makeshift table Goffy. People I knew who owned
the original mangles often folded them down since they took up a lot of room.
They used the tops for all sorts of things when they weren't in use. Wash days were much more scripted back then than they are now. Monday was the official "Wash Day" I think and then drying and ironing followed on subsequent days
Most people didn't make a main meal on wash days. Usually left overs from the Sunday roast was on the menu in one form or another.
 
The Mangle in mom's kitchen was folded down after doing its job on Monday and used as our kitchen table. The only flat surface in the kitchen it was used for preparing food, rolling pastry stacking dishes for washing up, and sitting children on to wash dirty faces:)

You are right Jennyann, on Monday we had bubble and squeak - I absolutely hated it.:rolleyes:
 
I can just imagine it Di. I remember being sat on the table and attacked with a flannel when I was least expecting it:rolleyes: It seemed that everyone involved in household laundry carried out their chores in a very rigid sequence so that when you stepped outside on Mondays if the weather was fine you could see lines of washing in every garden. My washing machine has gone on the fritz this week and we are waiting for a part so I hand washed some of the lighter items and in doing so my mind went back to watching my mother before she had a washing machine going through a typical laundry day. It brought back memories I can tell you. No rubber gloves and into the hot water, scrubbing and rubbing. Sheets seemed huge, then shirts and all kinds of other garments a family of two adults and three kids would amass. Then lots of cold water for "swilling" and then hand wringing to get out excess water before going through the rollers of our rather undsteady rubber mangle..... not forgetting on the way the blueing for the bed sheets and whites. Such a long process. No wonder there was no time for any serious cooking.

Then out into the garden where the lines were adjusted and tightened. The props with their seemingly dangerous splinter type wood were carried
out from by the coal house and then the "pegging out" commenced, being careful not to drag any of the laundry into the mud before the propping up of the lines began. All was well then as long as the lines didn't break, the
weather changed and it started pouring with rain, the winds were too high and spun the laundry around the line several times, or if a peg became loose and half of the garment threatened to fly away. I remember my
Mother rushing out for all of these eventualities and the prop went up and down several times to rescue the clean laundry. I won't even talk about winter laundry...just say hard frozen shapes propped up in our garage:D
 
How you brought back many memories Jenny. I can remember the luxury of my mom getting an electric washing machine with a roller that went around without having to turn a handle. We always used the washing water to clean scrub the steps. Having the garage was a luxury Jen.

My daughter was helping clean out a century old barn last year and found a mangle made in 1980's. It is going into the museum at the farm I volunteer at, which is full of amazing farm equipment and things used in by gone days.:)Mo
 
Oh my great subject. I too used to be attacked by the flanell and would walk away when mom had finished with a red neck. I remember the mangle and then mom had a twin tub it was brilliant but I was always warned to keep away from the spinner. If the line broke it was a terrible disaster I think this happened when blankets were washed because of their weight. I had to help collect and re wash the clothes, I could never carry a wet blanket!
 
I thought these two photo's might amuse you. Would you believe the mangle is on sale for offers over £175.00. amazing.

Phil

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My mom graduated to the twin tub Wendy, what luxury. She had it until the day she died in 1983.:) Mo
 
Mothers Mangle stood outside under the kitchen window, Big wooden rollers and a huge (it was to me then) cast iron handle. In the kitchen was a large gas boiler from which hot water was passed by bucket to either the bath,or the dolly tub if it was washday. In that corrugated tub the washing was pounded endlessly until it was clean, then rinsed in the sink, wrung out by hand then passed thro' the mangle. bet you girls would not like to see those days again.
 
Without an open fire drying would be hard for several months of the year. When I hang things on coat hangers somewhere in the house to finish drying because they can't go in the tumble dryer, it always reminds me of mom getting ready to go on holiday. Everything got washed, starched, ironed and hung up for dad to pack. Everything had tissue in between to stop it creasing, dad loved to do that. I still use that method for long trips even now. These threads bring back so many memories of my parents, thanks. :) Mo
 
My nan lived in a back to back 3/36 Franchise street toilets at one end of the row and a wash house at the other. In the wash house there was a mangle tub with a dolly and a board they would scrub their clothes on and a bar of soap to rub in also. I think it was called a rubbing board. Hard work but were the neighbours friendly in those days. Doors left open with no fear like today. She even had the coal cellar indoors. Jean.
 
Picture the scene: Monday, wash-day! The kitchen walls distempered and streaming with water, mums got the boiler going, she's scrubbing dads shirts on the washboard. I'm trying to sneak into the pantry before she sees me...too late "I need you, hold this sheet while I run it through the mangle." "Oh mum I wanna go out and play football..." "Mangle first, then football!" Oh and our coalhouse was inside the house...luxury eh?
 
Doors left open with no fear like today. She even had the coal cellar indoors. Jean.[/quote said:
I'm sitting working at the computer with all the doors open but we do lock them at night. Regarding the coal cellar Jean, now that was posh, we had a coal house in the back garden and an outside toilet. We also had a bathroom, we were lucky I guess. Ours was the white house on the right, the porch has been added since mom died.:) Mo
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hi.all remember when all estate houses as we called them then.had a gas boiler in the kitchen.connected
with a piece of rubber pipe.and after a few years the red rubber pipe went rotten.
 
hello patty.i dont know,they were big things,about 18in round x 2ft high.i have look on the www but cant find any pics of them.the last one i saw was outside a house catching rain water
 
Do you mean the old copper boilers where the washing water was boiled on a Monday and Friday nights for baths? I remember one like that that some used to call a copper.It was connected to the mains with a rubber hose and you could have a deluxe one with a tap on to get the water out.
 
Yes I remember we had one, and on the outside it was a blue mottled enamel coating. It had a lid on the top, and a tap for emptying, and a small glass window door near the bottom, so you could light the gas ring and see the flames, and yes there was a rubber gas pipe - nice and simple.
My Mom use to steam the Christmas puddings in it. I had a look on the web and could not find one like I remember.:)
 
I'm starting to remember the corrugated galvanised tubs into which the washing was put and then 'poshed' with a wooden 3 pronged posher. Monday was 'wash' day and I can remember the washing blowing on cloth lines in the gardens. Something called 'Reckets Blue' has just come to mind. If it rained we had a wooden airer which could be lowered on pulleys from the kitchen ceiling.
 
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