Recalling those Worcester wash-day blues

Sheena Payne-Lunn, joint co-ordinator of Worcester Life Stories, wrote: "It seems strange to think today with such ready access to automatic washing machines and dryers, that getting your washing clean and dry was quite an ordeal! 

"So much so, that a number of laundries around the city did a roaring trade."

Pants on the line

We shared the story on our We grew up in Worcester page on Facebook, and it soon generated some great exchanges.

Monday seemed to have been the most common day for the laundry to get its weekly wash.

Connie Davis posted: "Monday. Used to be Tide, then Persil and then Daz with the obligatory Dolly Blue Bag for whiteness and no stained washing hung out to dry for “Shame’s Sake”! (also for quickness, cold meat with bubble and squeak left over from Sunday dinner for tea!"

She wasn't alone; Sylvia Hancocks said that it sounded like her house in the 50s, while both Sandra Longmire and Helen Pitt recalled the Monday it was and bubble n squeak too!

Janet Lesley Dymock was Monday, as were Teresa Smith, Sharon Townsend, Margaret Layland, Chris Watkins, Helen Williams, Terri McGuiness Laverick, Karen Lock-obrey, Tony Ford , Margaret Evans and Marilyn Portman-Taylor, who posted: "Always rain or shine the boiler dolly tub and mangle would come out on a Monday. Tea was always cold meat, pickles and bubble and squeak."

They don't make clothes pegs like they used to...

Pauline Makepeace posted : "Monday twin tub in middle of kitchen then mother would put Led Zep on the mono box and blast it out as loud as it would go.

"How I hated hearing Robert Plant screaming and wailing! Quite like it now though.

"My partner's mum sat him on top of the twin tub turned it on and he fell in. They rescued him just in time."

Read more: Remembering Worcester's wash houses

Barbara Tolley remembers: Every Monday with with a gas boiler, heaving the washing out of the boiler and into the sink for rinsing."

Jane Morris posted: "Mondays. Had a separate single tub to wash and a mangle to press the water out. Later on mum had a separate spin dryer."

Tracey Haynes wrote: "Monday wash day, through the boiler and then the hand wringer. Washing was never allowed on Sunday."

Sue Hornberger posted: "Monday in the boiler, put through the mangle and dried, then ironed on Tuesdays/Wednesday. Also occasionally washed on Friday."

Victorian girls washing their dolls' clothes – a far easier task than what lay ahead for many

Not all were on a Monday, though.

For Sally Troth, it was Saturday, as her mum worked all week.

Pat Powell said that when she was a teenager, she did my washing on a Tuesday. Not to be outdone, and there will be many who agree with her, Jean Armstrong said simply "Every day".

Pauline Bronwen Price posted: "I always did my washing whenever there was any to do. I even washed on Christmas Day when I had my two youngest girls aged eight months and 20 months – both in nappies!"

Jane Kalinowski posted: "Back in the 60s my mum would stoke up her old copper boiler to do the washing Mondays,Thursdays and Saturdays. She always kept to those days," while Mary Hanley added "Monday, egg and chips, wash day every day with four children, by hand and a boiler."

Yvonne Smith said: "Saturday mornings regular as clockwork. All done by hand until dad got a twin tub."

Why not find our We grew up in Worcester page on Facebook and join thousands of others who are sharing their memories?