Sheila

I think Sheila is the original brand name. Ours had no name because we made it ourselves out of broom sticks.

the one mum had when we where small was just called a "pulley" ,it was the centre of the kitchen some days as mum would put any washing on it if it was raining,she would start with the underwear/ thin cottons & sheets that had been "mangled" to death and get them dried then dads overall's.Ours was wooden slats and the rope was tied to the wall by the side of the open fire in the kitchen.

When I bought mine it was called a Sheila. But that was 25 years ago. The very first one I had was actually a Sheila as the supports spelt it out!

I love mine and use it/her all the time!!

Who are you calling old-fashioned, MrsMopp???

Mine hasn't got a name but it hangs from the ceiling in my utility room next to the central heating boiler and I love it!

I have always had a 'pulley' . I also heard it called a Sheila on that programme Mrs Mopp and I thought, silly modern speak. A pulley is a pulley. Just call me old fashioned

We had one in the farmhouse and we called it Dolly.

Ours was just called The Drying Rack

What did you call your dolly tub then, merlot?

My granny never had a pulley, but she did have a big dolly tub in the wash-house and the plunger and the dolly-blue would be employed on washday (Monday, of course!). She also had a mangle and a Maiden...

Er.....Something to grow the hydrangea in, Ana

My mum had one and we never called it anything other than a pulley. I wish I had room for one.

Agus, I think 'Sheila' is old fashioned!!

We just called it a rack, and we had a dolly tub, mangle and a posser.
Ahh....... the good old days!

We didn't have room for an airer so wet days brought out the clothes horses in front of two fires and I HATED it and still remember the smell of wet washing and steamed up windows. We also had a ponch not a posser, it was made of copper with holes in the bottom flat surface. As lona said the good old days! May they never come back.

I have a pulley in the utility room, underneath it is a chest freezer, so it all dries quickly. This past week it has been used quite a lot, I would not be without it

We had a ponch too - that was in Nottingham where I spent the first 19 years of my life before escaping!

But, seriously, the drudgery of washday beggars belief as we potter to washing machine and tumble driers etc. My mother and grandmother spent every Monday washing, using the kitchen sinks, a sink tub, and a mangle. And yes, I too remember wet wash days, and the steam and smell.

kitty. Just don't tell Sheila .

I am imagining the looks I would get from family were I to say"I'm just going to hang these clothes on Sheila", it's the name of a close friend

Ariadne I have many happy memories of childhood holidays in Nottingham as one of my aunts married her dashing RAF boyfriend and they decided to live in his hometown.

I lived just a few miles from Nottingham for the first 30 years of my life and it has changed almost out or recognition. I was told last week the trams are being extended and Canning Circus and it's environs are chaotic.

My childhood was spent in a village not far out of Nottingham, Agus and Ariadne. Washing was done in dolly-tub, with puncher smacking the suds through the clothes, also the mangling (all done in back yard, so the water could run down into the drain at the bottom of the sloped yard) with the clothes being boiled in the kitchen. Can still remember the smell of the green Fairy soap being used on the rubbing board....aah, memories! We didn't have a pulley (Sheila Maid), as my mother thought the cooking smells would get into the drying clothes . We did used to have half a pig hanging from a hook there, but that was a different story......!

Oh yes, the big block of Fairy soap! Rubbed onto the shirt collars first, then onto the rest of the washing before it was plunged into the dolly tub...

DD has a sheila in her kitchen.

I've only ever had a susan.

And the Dolly-blue bag, Ana? To make the boiled white sheets even whiter-looking...

I loved swirling the blue bag in a bowl of cold water when I was a child.

I remember my Mother having a huge copper boiling tub and a wringer at the sink. The only soap I loved the smell of was coal tar.

Would hate to think what the clothes would have smelled like if say bed sheets were hanging above where kippers were cooking Marelli