It’s raining today, so I can’t do any washing – well I could but as I’m trying to save electricity, I’m reluctant to use the tumbler-dryer. What about days long past when automatic washing machines did not exist, especially when there were dirty pit clothes to wash?
The pit houses in Beamish, built between 1860 and 1865, were originally in Francis Street, Hetton-Le-Hole and they were occupied by pitmen and their families until 1976. There were similar houses in most colliery villages. At first water had to be fetched from standpipes in the lane but by 1900 most of the houses had a cold tap in the pantry.
When the men came home from the pit, dirty with coal dust and grime, they needed a bath in front of the fire. The women brought water several times from the standpipe outside in the lane, before heating it on the fire to fill the tin bath they had brought inside from its place hanging in the yard. Later on, colliery houses did have a copper above the fire to heat water but the tin bath still needed to be filled. After his bath the man would need a substantial meal, cooked on the fire.
Pits were often wet, so pit clothes, including socks would have to be washed and dried on a rail above the fire ready for the next day. Dirty pit clothes were banged against the back yard wall to rid them of dirt and grime. Pit boots needed drying and greased with fat or melted tallow from a candle.
Washing day
Washing day was usually a Monday. Several journeys would be needed to fill the poss tub with hot water, again the same procedure of standpipe and heating on the fire. Before possing, some clothes were scrubbed. There were no detergents, just soap and lots of elbow grease. Some clothes, like whites would be boiled in a pan on the fire and lifted out with a stick. Some articles, like shirt collars needed to be starched.
The poss tub washing was very hard work. Hot water in the tub had grated soap inserted to clean the clothes. Then came the possing with a poss stick, turning it round and round as hard as one could to clean the clothes. After the wash the clothes needed to be rinsed and put through the mangle. If washday was fine the clothes could be hung out on the line in the lane but beware, if someone’s chimney caught fire, soot would sweep down the lane, or if a tradesman, like a man with a cart selling fresh herrings and kippers, out would come all the women to hurriedly take washing off the line, looking as they did to compare their white washing with others, thinking that theirs was the brightest.
If the day was wet, clothes had to be dried in the kitchen. The smell of damp washing would be everywhere. When dry, clothes had to be ironed. Flat irons were heated on a stand over a red- hot fire. One needed more than one iron to ensure the iron was hot enough; a spit on the iron making a sizzle would be the right temperature.
Machines and detergents
Washing day did get better if you had the cash. In 1949, if you had £57.6s.8d you could purchase an ADA washing machine with its swish-swirl action that coaxed out the dirt. This machine also had power driven rollers, so no need for a mangle in the back yard. Considering that a manual workers average weekly salary in 1949 was £7 a week, it is highly unlikely that many could afford such luxury. Later came the twin tub, again expensive BUT by 1960 this could be bought on hire purchase. The twin tub cost 52 guineas or £64 9s 7d on hire purchase over two years; quite a lot of interest to pay.
There were now detergents like Oxydol and Rinso. Rinso claimed that if you soaked the clothes overnight, by morning they would be so clean that you would save time, fuel, work and money.
Looking after the home
Miners’ wives kept the house clean and neat. Floors were scrubbed and yards were swilled, often with water from the poss tub when washing clothes was finished. Mats were not only cleaned but made. A lot of old fabric was needed for a clippy mat. Clippings would be cut. Special wools could be purchased to make a rug but this would cost more. A hessian base was fitted onto a frame and a progger was used to push the through the hessian and weave the clipping or wool into a loop to be pulled up. Then each individual loop was clipped. Proggy mats could be used not only as mats but kept for beds on a cold night. Knitting was also a pastime; socks, gloves, mittens and pullovers.
The outside had to be clean as well as the inside. Windows and curtains, especially white net curtains had to be kept clean. The front step was cleaned weekly, usually the last job on a Friday, with a donkey stone – chalk like powder stone mixed with bleach and water and set into a mould.
Shopping was often a daily chore as there were no fridges or freezers. Women, especially those in pit villages, didn’t work then, they didn’t have time. I’ll think about that next time I use my automatic washing machine.
