Genealogy Chat

I remember my maternal grandmother had a copper in the kitchen which had a fire lit under it to make the water hot for the washing which was then boiled. When we visited when I was very young if I had any toys out of my bag she would say at lunchtime 'clear those up my girl - or they'll be in the copper file'.
They also had gas lighting! We don't realise how relatively easy life is now - but of course my grandmother did not work apart from in the home.

Goodness me, this brings back some memories, mangles and coppers :) but those things didn't half bite, many a time I nearly lost my fingers, but coppers were the best for nice white nappies, am I ever showing my age :)

Frances

Talking about mangles - it brought to mind a tale my uncle recalled to me recently of how his mum (my nan) used the mangle for another purpose one time ... just after the war when times were hard they used to buy horse meat steaks but they were often quite tough, so she would put them through the mangle to "tenderise" them a bit and it was my uncle's job to catch the steak as it fell out of the rollers.

One day he wasn't quick enough to catch the steak and it fell smack on the dirty floor. Nan, not wanting to waste food in times of need, merely picked it up, brushed it off and said "That one's your fathers!" LOL

Athena

I have someone on my tree who was a "Bone Cropper" - sounded quite gorey until I found out it was something to do with bones for corsetry!

Athena

Well, thank you Mary and Carol. It's interesting to find out these things.

Ohhh, imagine having to do the washing that way! it's hard enough for me to load the automatic and press the button. I want one that loads itself.....lol


Deb:)

Deb
You must be a young one! A mangle was usually in the back yard of the terraced houses. It was on a cast iron or similar set of legs and about waist height there were two parallel rollers made from wood, with a handle at the end and the washing was washed in a tub below and then fed into the rollers as someone (often a child!) turned the handle and voila! the water was extracted from the washing. There was large sort of screw on the top to tighten the rollers down as they wore away. I remember seeing one of these in action when I was small. I also remember people coming to use it, so perhaps my friends Mum was a "Mangle Keeper"! The washing was washed in a "poss tub" which was a sort of metal barrel and a "poss stick" was used to plunge up and down so the dirt came out. A "poss stick was a sort of sink plunger shape with a long handle and the cup part had holes in so when you plunged it in, the water was forced through the washing and came through the holes, a manual washing machine!
Sorry to drone on but thought this might be of interest. How sad am I!
Carol

Goodness, Deb, that makes me feel ancient - we had a mangle when I was little.

They were used before the days of washing machines to squeeze water out of clothes before hanging them out to dry. Also known as a wringer.

My very first second-hand washing machine had no spin-dry, just an electric mangle attachment . Should have kept it, I bet it'd be a museum piece now.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mangle_(machine)

God knows what I'm laughing at because I don't even know what a mangle is, but this thread is funny, funny, funny.


Deb:)

Wheel Tappers Listener

Well, first you'd need to own the mangle!

http://rmhh.co.uk/occup/m.html reveals "Woman who hired out her mangle. The possession of a mangle, for the use of which a small sum was charged, was, among the poorer class of English cottagers, a common means of earning money."

What a brilliant way of bringing in a bit of extra cash. Bet the cost of the mangle wasn't cheap in the first place though.

Maybe for the next census I should record myself as "keeper of the lawn mower" as I'm always lending it out ;-)

Reseaching my OH's tree we found someone listed in the census as "Keeper of the Mangle" !!
Perhaps they had just one in the village and being it's keeper was a honour...maybe not!

Rob

My grt grt granddad William Pearce (born 1844) was a fossil digger in Cambridge.

Cool I thought, until someone informed me he was actually digging for dung.

Janet

K, I'm shocked...I can't believe you've been murdering poor defenceless moles! I'd be really excited if I found a molehill in my garden!

How about this for an occupation - or not - as the case may be

RG11; Piece: 3738; Folio: 74; Page: 50; Line: ; GSU roll: 1341895.

George Huyton - Occupation - 'to lazy to work'

Gail x

My best so far is a female contortionist.

i could do with a mole catcher in my allotment.
The strangest one i have is a bleeder with leeches and it was a women yuk.
The funniest i have come across just latley is a Goldfish Catcher the mind boggles.

ewwwwwwwwwww

night soil man...

emptying the outside loo's!!--- Ugh!!

Unfortunately with a trap that has to be set carefully in the runs underground that you find with a thin rod. They are killed instantly.

I don't mind the odd one but we have over 200 moles hills and it gets a bit much

Nice job Kathryn, dont fancy that myself

how can you catch a Mole?