General Chat

Next to the copper was the dolly-tub - a wooden barrel with the top six inches or so removed. With years of use the wooden tub had acquired a greyish patina inside as the deposits of soap built up. A wooden 'dolly' was used to round and swish the clothes around the tub - a simultaneous up and down and side to side movement, which became an acquired skill very early in a young girl's life. There were no screws or nails in a dolly's construction which might rust and cause iron-mould stains on the clothes - wooden wedges secured head and handle to the shaft. Behind the dolly-tub stood the mangle. Cast iron frame and sturdy wooden rollers, whose pressure could be adjusted as desired by the large screw at the top. I learned to turn the handle of this statuesque beast when I was barely tall enough to reach it, and Father's favourite excuse for packing me off to Webley's Row on Mondays during school holidays was 'better get on off down to yer Grandma's and help her with the mangle.' Around the walls hung the various sizes of oval zinc baths - the largest one for family baths in front of the kitchen fire - the smallest for bathing the baby. They were often bought in sets of three; a set would have cost about five shillings at the turn of the century; galvanised buckets were sevenpence each. Grandma Jane had no soap powders, or detergents, or biological whizz-wonders ! Her soap was of the hard yellow bar type, sold by the pound. Because she was a thrifty housewife she always cut it into quarters and dried it on the highest shelf so that it hardened and thus went further. I actually remember when I was at Grammar School in the 1930s, drawing a sketch in my Domestic Science book on how to stack soap like the bricks in a wall, to make it last longer! An old coarse grater was used to grate the soap into the copper on wash-day. Her other two vital supplies were Robin Starch and a square of Reckitts Blue tied up in a scrap of white cloth. 'Out of the blue comes the whitest wash' proclaimed the Reckitts adverts. Soda of course, was in daily use and was bought six pounds at a time.

Mondays, we had a copper in the scullery which had to be lit, and all the surplus rubbish such as our comics and bits and pieces went up the chimney on washing day, much to our sorrow, anything to get the water boiling you see, and wood and that, but it was an all-day job, washing day, and I can smell it now – the smell of the steam and the soap, you know, and my mother had three big zinc baths: one was for the washing, and there was a scrubbing board, and when I went home at lunchtime – this was when I was older – I used to be told to scrub the bands on the men’s shirts.”

Reading again I see I must have presumed the sink bit, purely because the baby in this case was given a bath in the kitchen. What would I do without G.R eh? :-)

Perhaps they made baby zinc baths grampa??????????

Wrong again Dan It was about 5 feet long (one and a half metres) and was brought out to be placed in front of the fire for the family to bathe in.

Too big for the sink....

Ah I see. Reading again I now understand that the zinc bath must have been only small and that it was placed in the sink. Got ya. Thanks.

The bath was made of Zinc , Daniel, olden days, even before me...!

No it's not It is a bath made out of the same Zinc-coated metal that a Watering Can is made from.

Don't you mean a bath made of zinc?

It's alright. Been answered.