When washday led to frayed tempers

All were white, and required at least 24 hours to complete the weekly laundering process. An overnight soak, early next morning light the fire under the pans of cold water on the stove or directly beneath the copper in the corner, boil and scrub, rinse, put through the mangle, hang out to dry, heat flat irons, iron, hang up to air.

I have just recited 'Mondays at my grandma's' over 70 years ago, when mother and I (not yet going to school) would go to help with the weekly wash for the seven remaining members of the family. It was not so bad in fine weather but, when the 'hang out to dry' part was rained off and the kitchen had to be festooned with dripping, steaming laundry, tempers soon frayed and by lunchtime grandfather knew better than to come in for his meal.

Among the old-time items first given to the museum some 25 years ago were several washday reminders: a dolly (for thumping the dirt out), a tin bath, a clothes horse, bars of soap. These can be seen (together with a mock copper, really a packing case covered with 'brick' paper and a red light-bulb 'fire') in our Junior Group's first display feature in 1981. In Maritime Year 1982, the same basic scene was enhanced with 'souvenirs of foreign parts', from our collection '“ a Spanish shawl, Japanese fans, etc '“ and the display re-titled The Sailor Home from the Sea with our (then) one and only male mannequin in nautical dress.

Today, we have similar household items displayed in a more detailed representation of an old-time kitchen, with the laundry confined to the scullery or outhouse, complete with authentic water pump '“ at least my grandmother had a cold tap indoors! As the museum expanded into the covered moat area, there was room for a number of 'then and now' domestic appliances including advances in laundering equipment.

Inspection of our costume displays will soon convince female visitors of their good fortune in the simplicity of modern dress. From the floor-length, whale-boned gowns of a century ago, necessitating an upright stance and plenty of time to dress, by way of the boyish Twenties styles (that required the very opposite kind of corsetry), today's styles have something for everyone, with the minimum of trouble in putting it on.

Old street-scene photographs show almost everybody wearing a hat, no matter what the reason to be out of doors. Most of the gown shops and outfitters mentioned last week included the word milliner in their trade description: just before the Second World War, the Misses Portsmouth declared themselves to be agents for Henry Heath hats, and Louise at No. 10 Dane Road went so far as to advertise 'Hats re-modelled, re-tinted, copied'!

PAT BERRY