The Laundry In Late Victorian Times
Water had to be collected by bucket.
Water heated in wood/coal fired coppers in a lean-to at back of house.
Dirty water poured into a soak away pit. There was no mains drainage until 1965.
Lighting – candles and oil lamps. There was no electricity until the 1920s.
Soap – bars of washing soap. Soap to put in coppers of hot water was grated.
Dirty clothes were scrubbed or rubbed on corrugated wash board.
Posser or posher used to move clothes up and down in wash tub.
Solid irons were heated on a rack in front of coal fire range.
In the early 1900s there was a pyramid coke stove in middle of the floor on which flat irons were heated.
Water was removed from washing with a mangle.
Clothes were dried on lines in the garden in fine weather. There were rows of them. In bad weather the clothes were hung on lines in a shed, heated by a coal/wood stove.
The dirty clothes were collected from the big houses in one of 2 baskets on a 3 wheeled trolley. Mr Randall used to push the trolley round the village.
The freshly laundered clothes were returned in the second wicker hamper.
The ironing was done in the back room of the end house and the folding and packing of the clean laundry was done in the front room.
The laundry was still operating until the Second World War when it became difficult to get soap.
You have now completed your walk around the Common and learnt about what was there in Victorian times 1837-1901.