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House and home

maiden, clothes-horse or something else?

(140 Posts)
frankie74 Tue 26-Feb-19 12:33:29

The wooden hinged, floor-standing clothes drier/airer that was in our childhood home was called the maiden. I'm wondering if that was one of our mum's made-up expressions (there were several!) What did others call it? Was it a name local to NW England?

libra10 Wed 27-Feb-19 10:49:54

frankie74 I'm also from the North West, and we called this large contraption a maiden. Coincidentally, my name is also frankie.

GabriellaG54 Wed 27-Feb-19 10:49:34

A maiden was a fold out or free standing clothes dryer/airer and the slatted overhead pulley operated thingy in the kitchen was called a rack in my Liverpool childhood.

Daisyboots Wed 27-Feb-19 10:41:32

Londoner here when we were children my Mum had a clothes horse which was great for making dens. When i fot married I had a concertina style aier which fitten on top of an electric heater to dry the clothes. When I moved to Norfolk therewas an airer on a pulley from the ceiling over the central heating boiler in the utility room which the previous owner called a maiden. Now I call my floor standing ones airers which most people in Portugal use to dry their wasing outside and that is called an estendal. I do have a washing line and airer though.

Overthehills Wed 27-Feb-19 10:41:04

Clothes horse.
Pulley over the Rayburn.
Clothes line.
Hotpress.
I’m Irish.

annab275 Wed 27-Feb-19 10:35:39

I have a pulley which is brilliant. I can't think of a house I have lived in without one. But we shall be on the move soon, and I was wondering if I need a tumble dryer or a clothes horse.

inishowen Wed 27-Feb-19 10:35:29

My mum was from Liverpool and it was the clothes maiden. Here in Ireland it's clothes horse. Mum also talked about the airing cupboard, whereas here it's the hot press.

maryhoffman37 Wed 27-Feb-19 10:29:47

We, SE, called it the clothes horse. Now I have an airer above the Aga, which is called Gnu.

sue01 Wed 27-Feb-19 10:29:06

Clothes horse here. A rickety old wooden thing held together with strips of what looked like canvas. My Mother was from Somerset.

Amee Wed 27-Feb-19 10:08:30

Clothes horse, but also know maiden (grew up in South)

washing line

Izzywizzy Wed 27-Feb-19 10:07:08

We called it a maiden and my mum still does but I now call it the clothes airer. We came from Cheshire

jeanblew Wed 27-Feb-19 10:06:47

Maiden in Wigan.

GrandmaPam Wed 27-Feb-19 10:01:51

Definitely 'maiden' for us too "up north" grin

Nanny123 Wed 27-Feb-19 09:58:37

Always called it the “airer”

dragonfly46 Wed 27-Feb-19 08:49:08

Mum was a Londener and Dad a Yorkshireman and it was a clothes horse. It didn't look like a horse though!

sodapop Wed 27-Feb-19 08:45:21

I remember the Flatley Grammaretto We couldn't afford one though. Nappies blowing on the clothes line all pristine, a lovely sight.

Esspee Wed 27-Feb-19 08:03:25

In Glasgow the midden was where the bins were kept, (presumably in earlier days it would have been a pile of rotting garbage mixed with ashes from the fire) usually next to the wash house where the communal boiler/s for the close resided. (Most workers lived in tenement flats). The back court had washing lines up permanently and each house had an allocated day to use the wash house and lines.
In the kitchen there was a bed recess and in front of the range there was a pulley to hang the washing on. A wooden, concertina style contraption was called the clothes horse which was mainly used to dry baby items.

travelsafar Wed 27-Feb-19 07:49:15

Its either Airer or Clothes horse here.

Anja Wed 27-Feb-19 07:39:07

It was a clothes horse in our house.

I have a pulley in a clever, hidden space. It is amazing fir drying clothes in winter or simply airing them. Refuse to have a tumble dryer.

M0nica Wed 27-Feb-19 07:27:42

Parents grew up in London and I always knew it as a clothes horse.

My modern large plastic wire 'clothes horse' I dry clothes on now is referred to as 'the clothes dryer'

Airing was done in the airing cupboard, constantly warm because the hot water tank (uninsulated) was in it.

Gettingitrightoneday Wed 27-Feb-19 07:06:57

Clothes horse. From Leicester and around.

ninathenana Wed 27-Feb-19 07:04:42

I dry clothes on a "whirly" outside.

Mum hung hers "on the line". It was a length of rope with rope pulleys attached to a pair of concrete posts which all council houses in our area had. Mum was posh though as her line was attached to the pulleys with cleats and she would unhook it and store it in the shed when not in use to keep it clean.

Bigred18 Wed 27-Feb-19 04:39:46

Oh my had forgotten the maiden! I was born in liverpool and we had a maiden and pully thing in kitchen - you'd think the clothes wd collect food smells! Here in oz i hve a clothes airer.

Maggiemaybe Wed 27-Feb-19 00:09:18

My West Yorkshire mother-in-law had a creel. Very useful it was.

Grammaretto Tue 26-Feb-19 23:59:11

Clothes horse for the low one.
Maiden for the concertina.
Pulley for the line high in the kitchen fixed with a cleat, where you wind the rope. We have one and use it every day.
We had a Flatly electric hot cabinet when we were young marrieds. I hung the nappies in it when it was impossible to dry them outside. We lived in a top floor flat..

Bathsheba Tue 26-Feb-19 23:07:48

Clothes Horse - London and the South East.

Washing Line.