Looking back at your childhood what are the earliest memories of how the washing was done?

With a scrubbing board in a tin tub, and a dolly peg in a tub, boiling in the cellar with a fire underneath the water container. Also there were conveniences for the general public at that time. The city were I lived had a lot of baths and wash houses. They were combined with the public swimming baths and they gave the service of letting people go along to use their machines, which were huge. And you could often see people with prams pushing them down the streets with... In those days potatoes used to come in big wicker baskets, and they'd have a wicker basket in this pram and all the family washing. As much as they could possibly get in that wicker basket was put in there, and they wheeled it to the nearest public wash house and baths, and when it came back it was dry-ish, rather than having wet washing hanging around the house, as it would have been if it had been done in the house.

You mentioned a dolly peg, what was that?

Yes, a dolly peg it was a little bit... It was, I suppose, about 4 foot high, a little bit like a milking stool at the bottom, with a long pole in the centre, two handles at the top and you agitated it: a manual agitator. And for the very dirty bits on the working shirts, or whatever there was, you'd have a scrubbing board. And that would stand in the water and you would put the dirty part, like the collar or the cuffs, and you would rub the soap over it and get a scrubbing brush and scrub it like that. And you knew when it was wash day because you walked in and you could smell the boiling washing, the washing that had been boiled up, even if it was in the cellar... steam everywhere. Wet clothes hanging around forever, no dryers unless of course, you know, it was a fine day. If it was a fine day they would all get pegged out on the line.

Did you used to have a mangle?

Oh yes. Now you needed strong arms for that because they were... the big mangles were very, very heavy. Cast iron and great big thick wooden rollers.

Instead of soap powders, you didn't use the soap powders we have today, so what sort of things did you use?

Well, it was carbolic soap...

Right...

or green soap sometimes. I can remember Fairy, green soap coming in. Before that it was just carbolic soap. Or those who could afford it had, I think, soap flakes perhaps: soap that had been specially flaked. But it just depended on what your income was, as to what you could afford. And then of course, a little bit later on there came the Rinso. You've heard of Rinso haven't you? It was the forerunner of all the powders.

Oh, right...

Rinso...

Can you remember how any of these smelt, did they have a distinct smell or...?

Yes, which is indescribable unless you've smelt it yourself! I suppose the nearest thing would be to a steamy bath.

So it didn't smell nice, didn't make the clothes smell nice, it was just to clean them basically?

What was to clean them?

The soap it... they didn't smell nice... it was just...

Oh yes, it was a good clean smell, Yes it was good clean smell.

OK. When washing machines were first invented, how long did it take for you to have one in your family, and how did this changed things?

My parents never had one, never had one. And I didn't get a washing machine until the mid fifties.

How did that change?

Oh, it made a big difference, but it wasn't an automatic.

Well, what did it look like, and what did you have to... how did it work?

Well, they worked on the same principle as they work now, with electricity. But my first one was only so big, very tiny, and it had a rubber mangle on the top; and that was made by Hoover.

And how did they differ from the ones they have today?

Oh well, the ones you have today... there's just no work. You just throw them in ,press a button when you've set the... whatever you want, and walk away. It's taken off your hands. In comparison, it used to take a day to do the family wash. Now you can do the equivalent in a couple of hours, all washed and ironed and dry, all out of the way. It saves hours of work.

Before you had Hoovers what would you use to clean the floors?

I wondered if you'd thought of that one. Brushes: You would sweep them with stiff brushes. And if they were very dusty, they used to have a trick of having damp tea leaves, and you'd strew them on the carpet, all over, and that would kill the dust as you brushed.

Oh right- I never knew that!

Or if the carpet... and you remember in those days not many people - well very few - had fitted carpets. In fact I can't remember... I can't think of anyone. They were usually big carpets or rugs. If they were small rugs they would go out over the line and you'd beat them with a beater.

Did you ever have, did you get, a Hoover eventually when they came out?

Oh yes.

That obviously made things easier, but what did they look like?

Well, the first Hoovers I remember were very, very heavy in weight for me, and not unlike the traditional shape they still are, except they were made in stainless steel, I suppose, but they... of course, by that time a lot of people had carpets all over the house, and it did make a difference.

When was that roughly?

Roughly towards the end of the thirties.

Right, OK, what were your earliest memories of television?

My earliest memories, Oh gosh! I suppose the first time I ever watched television was at the year of the Coronation. Like most people, unless you were very, very wealthy, you couldn't afford a television and the only... The first time I watched television was on a friend's television, where we were invited to go and watch the coronation. And it was a very tiny little screen perhaps from there to there. [Gestures a few centimetres.] And it was, I think, in a very long, tall cabinet... Of course, in those days your eyesight quite a lot better than it is after so many years. And it was all right and because it was new and we'd nothing to compare it to, except the cinema, which, of course, every one was used to. You were aware that it was only tiny, but because it was contained within a room it was acceptable.

Now-a-days they're used for recreational use, you just switch on and watch it; but how does that differ from what you used to do? I mean, you said you were invited round, so you obviously didn't get a choice of what you watched?

Oh, very limited. In fact, I don't think they broadcast for quite a lot of the day. You see, not owning one for a long, long time, I wasn't aware of what programs there were; but I have a feeling that they were very, very short hours... mostly towards the evening time, nothing in the day particularly the mornings. But I suppose they had coverage at some stages for big events, but I really couldn't answer that one.

So, when was the first time you got a television in the family?

Once again I would say the middle fifties, and that would be... (How many years after they sort of came out?) 18 nearly 20 years after they first. You see, they only broadcast, didn't they, in the London area to begin with before the war? Well, I was living up North, and I don't think we had the television set up in that part of the world until after the war. I'm not sure about that though.

Before television, what technology was there to entertain you and your family?

Oh the radio, technology. I would say, all I can think of is the radio. It all depended in those days on what level of society you were. Some people had cars, they could go out riding. But if you couldn't afford a car, well you couldn't afford a car, and that was it. In the home the radio certainly had got more or less established in everyone's home.

What did they look like, and how did they work?

Well, like anything else it started off, I suppose, with dials and headphones. They had a box and they had headphones and they had dials to bring it in and get the wave band. Those were the very... That was my memory of the very earliest radio that I can remember; with sitting watching my father twist the dials. And then, of course, we got... As it improved, then you could just switch on and you even got places on the dial saying... It would pick up places from Europe which was fantastic, you know. Wasn't just within the country. But I am sure you will be able to get a lot of information from radio buffs who'll be able to give you all the details, but those are my earliest memories.

There was one other thing, the gramophone: and the earliest one I remember was one of those where you turn the handle and had a great big horn. With His Master's Voice... and they were portable. This was portable, and you had, I suppose you had, a few selected records and played them constantly. In fact we used to take ours into the air raid shelter, when we had to sit in the air raid shelter at night... It was a communal one. And the gramophone used to be taken in religiously, and it would play the records and people would... everyone was smoking their heads off: the place was like a tap room. And suddenly, when you heard the aircraft coming, the first thing we'd do was take the record off and sit and listen.

Listen to the planes...

Listen to the planes... and wait for the bombs to go over... hear the swish of the bombs. But yes gramophones was another one, if you were lucky enough.

OK. How old were you when you first got a telephone In your family?

Well, I suppose mid fifties, in the last century, in the mid fifties again... when we first got our... yes early fifties. But it wasn't... you did have access to phones... Quite a number of people had them already in their houses, so I was not like some people who had never had access to using a phone. Some people were afraid of using phones because they'd never been used to using them.

How did they differ from the ones today, the touch ones?

Oh, I think the dialling, of course, was the main thing; and obviously you had you had several different kinds. There was the hand held one and you also had the one that had it hooked on to the side, where you lifted the earpiece and spoke into the speaker. But you've seen them all on films. You've got record of them in old films, you know. If you keep your eyes open, you'll see all varieties of them. But there was no touch telephones; no, nothing like that.

Was it expensive to use the telephone?

I would say for the time, very little difference, very little.

And did it bring the family closer together? I mean, you could communicate easier?

That was good, because even if both... all members of the family didn't have a phone, it did mean that there would be a point at which they could all come together. It meant that communication wasn't as difficult. Yes.

With cooking appliances changing over the years, first you had the Aga, then the cooker and then the microwave, how did the introduction of microwaves effect your family?

It didn't, because they never had one! It's affected mine fantastically, wonderful. I think one of the best inventions out, but what came before the Aga?

Haven't got a clue, I don't know, haven't got a clue.

What came before the Aga? Not everyone had an Aga.

Was it called a range?

A fire range. If you were lucky enough, some houses had fireplaces where they had an oven beside it, where they cooked. Some people didn't even have that, and they had little hobs on the grates, on the fire, and they turned the hob over the fire and cooked on the fire. Didn't have a cooker, kettles too always used to sit beside the fire or hang over the fire on a hook.

When you first got a microwave, how did you feel about them? There are stories that some people were scared of them because of the waves they let out. Did it bother you?

It didn't bother me because I reasoned that it wouldn't be allowed to be sold unless it had been fully tested; and if you're sensible and careful. But of course, remember, it had been invented and had been used in America many years before became popular in England. So we did have that knowledge, before it was more or less introduced on a big scale in this country. Very few places actually sold microwaves for quite a while, but they were used a lot more in America for years before that.

OK, central heating. Can you remember when it first came out and how did you heat the house before?

Before central heating: fires hot water bottles, loads of clothes, closed windows.

And did you have an open fire in every room, or just one that heated the whole house?

Unless you were poorly, then you had one in your bedroom.

Did you ever work in an office or anything like that?

Yes.

And how did technology change, I mean typewriters and things like that, how has that change?

Well, I wasn't in that kind of a situation and it wasn't for a long, long period so I couldn't answer that one.

OK, computers: what do you think of them do you have one?

I haven't got one, but I am like people who were first introduced to the unknown: probably haven't bothered because I am just a little bit afraid that I will make a fool of myself, and that's really the top and bottom of it. Those who have confidence in new things just go all out; and it depends too on your need. Well I've not needed a computer since they sort of, you know, have just become so popular. But I'd certainly like to have a go now. Now that I've got time and it doesn't matter, there's no pressure.

OK. Before electricity, how would you light the house and what happened when lighting was introduced?

Well before electricity, which was wonderful, there were several stages of lighting. Candles I can recall using as a child to light my way to bed, on a candlestick. Oil lamps, which had to be trimmed and cleaned and paraffin bought for them; and kept in absolute pristine condition because the fumes from the paraffin lights could have been dangerous. So those were the first two forms of lighting that I recall.

Then town gas came in; and if you were lucky enough you you had a house with gas supplied. Usually there was a centre light, almost like an electric light positioning and this, of course, was in the main room; perhaps not every room, but once the gas was in the house I think most rooms did have it on little side brackets in certain rooms, but the main rooms had a middle, centre light. And you used to have... you used to have to buy what they called mantles; and they were terribly delicate. They were small shaped, rounded with almost, I suppose, a clay type top. And you had to put them on to the... where the gas came out, and carefully put them round to make them hold, almost like a bulb... and if you weren't careful even blowing on them sometimes would break them. So they were very delicate. And then you'd turn the gas on. It could have been a tap that screwed in, it could have been a lever where you had like a swing, a see-saw, where you pulled it down one side and it would bring the gas out and you turned/pulled it the other and that would turn the gas off. You would then light it with either a taper or with a match, and then it would give the light. I think that went on for quite a while. Now you see, the gas obviously was introduced in some houses in the 1800's, but some houses didn't even have gas until 20's. A lot of people lived in houses that didn't even have town gas, but that wasn't the general rule; most people by that time had. So then, of course, you could... you could then get electricity put in once the mains had been put in. And how they did that by taking the gas out and replacing it with electricity I do not know. But they did do that, they converted gas lit houses into electrically lit houses.

Contribute your memories

Return to St Aldhelms Court