Re: Black lead fireside range (please help)
 

In a tin bath eh, thats posh. In the 40s whilst living in York St, Church I remember being bathed in the "Slopstone" acka "Earthenware Sink". Also we only had electricity downstairs - can even remember the smoke stains from the Candles which were place on the bedrooms mantelpiece, we even had a Tippler Toilet" - was alwys afraid of falling down one.

Re: Black lead fireside range (please help)
 

Me too - I have a photo somewhere...

Re: Black lead fireside range (please help)
 

Can any body tell me what soap they would have used in the tin bath, and also would they use it as a block or would they have grated it with a cheese like grater !!!!!!.

And when they were washing clothes in the dolly tub, what did they use no washing powder in those days.

And finally what was a poser used for and why did they use a poser and a dolly stick together.

Re: Black lead fireside range (please help)
 

carbolic soap

Re: Black lead fireside range (please help)
 

Bit of internet research some sites of which you may have already visited.

BTW it's a posser not a poser. Dolly stick appears to be the name for the wooden implement like a small stool with a long handle, posser is for the copper dome type of implement. Not used together as far as I can see but a dolly stick is also the name for a wooden stick used to take the clothes out of the tub after washing.

Washing Soda crystals would have been used in the dolly tub, also dolly blue to get things white.

Washing dollies, possers, laundry possing-sticks

?Back in the Day??: Life and How it was Lived a Hundred Years Ago II « "Not Yet Published"

Posser, Victorian, Original | Object Lessons - Houses & Homes: Victorians

Re: Black lead fireside range (please help)
 

I recall the dolly tub and the posser
....and the washboard
Wringer Washers & Washboards

Re: Black lead fireside range (please help)
 

Yep still got a glass washboard somewhere - never used by me but it had been left behind in the shed in the first house we bought in 1978 and too nice to throw away.

Re: Black lead fireside range (please help)
 

It was Carbolic soap...or Olive soap...they used to cut it off in a lump when you went to the Co-op.
And yes my mum(and my gran) used grated carbolic soap for washing clothes and a huge chunk to rub on unsightly stains before whatever it was went into the dolly tub.

Re: Black lead fireside range (please help)
 

Bet it was cold for a bare bum, sitting on a slopstone sink drainer in winter!

I'm sure my grandmother(and maybe my mother) used to collect all the nearly finished bits of household soap and drop them in a jam jar with a bit of water in it- dissolved and made a sort of liquid soap for washing clothes.

Re: Black lead fireside range (please help)
 

Gordon we did that with bits of soap, but Ma used it for shampoo.....and dipped the comb into the slimy mixture and combed it through her hair before putting some crazy sort of bulldog clips in her hair, to make natural looking waves.

Re: Black lead fireside range (please help)
 

I still use carbolic ... get it down at the health food store; and you can get olive too. I love the smell of carbolic in a hot shower.:D By the by, when Jethro says "in those days", does it make anyone else feel old:rolleyes: I'll bet I'm not the only one on here who wore clogs:D

Re: Black lead fireside range (please help)
 

I never wore clogs, but I wore some pretty hideous jumble sale shoes...twopence(old money ) a pair.

Re: Black lead fireside range (please help)
 

Luxury:D:D

Re: Black lead fireside range (please help)
 

Eric, you wouldn't be saying that if you could have seen them...I would have preferred clogs!

Re: Black lead fireside range (please help)
 

I’ve just been reading all the very interesting accounts of the ‘luxuries’ of a by-gone era. Brought back memories - it's that 'age' thing. The house where I lived until I was 14 had a black-leaded fireplace and oven – my mother used to keep it well polished, hard work but not one complaint.
I was born in this house and my cot was the bottom drawer, never closed of course but it probably would have been a temptation to do so had I been a screaming baby (oops!).
Friday night was bath night – tin bath in the kitchen. Big rock kept in the garden during the summer became the bed-warmer in the winter – it was great, kept the heat well, wrapped in a blanket.
Dad held a big sheet of paper in front of the fire to create a draught and get it started – often paper caught on fire, no wonder I have a phobia about fire now.
Outside toilet, pan was emptied weekly. Yuk! Washday was Monday, ironing Tuesday and so on, never different. My mother possed the clothes in the dolly tub then put them through a heavy wringer. Clothes were hung out across the road on lines to dry, lines held up high with props to keep them out of the way of any passing vehicles, though not many of those.
Sheer luxury when we got a Council house…..and yes, I did wear clogs. Hand made by Thornber’s of Clitheroe if I remember rightly. I had a pair of blue ones. Lasted forever.