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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?

okimherenow Wed 27-Feb-19 15:38:27

We had one that pulled down from the ceiling and my mum called it SHEILA .... i thought Auntie Sheila had given it to us ....
Until recently when i say them being advertised as SHEILA'S
htg wish mum was still alive and we could have laughed about it ...

chezza1 Wed 27-Feb-19 15:38:49

Clothes horse down here. Maiden was the one suspended from the ceiling I think.

Rosina Wed 27-Feb-19 15:48:17

Gabriella I had one of those and used it as a towel rail! We had a wooden hinged effort that was always the clothes horse at home. The one I have now is a concertina type metal and is the 'airer'.

Saggi Wed 27-Feb-19 16:00:44

My gran and mum came from north west ( Manchester/Stockport area) and they called it ‘maiden’ but quite often mum would say just ‘clothes horse’ ...never airer though

Nanaval4G Wed 27-Feb-19 16:25:53

Maiden and a rack for us, the rack was the most used both for drying clothes and airing them after ironing. If I had a utility room I would definitely have a rack, it was so useful.
I'm for the North West by the way

farview Wed 27-Feb-19 16:33:23

I tend to still call it a maiden...was brought up with everyone saying maiden..in Lancashire..

grandmar Wed 27-Feb-19 16:48:02

North West here. We had a 'maiden' and a 'rack'. In summer the maiden made a good tent to play in when covered in a blanket.

lincolnimp Wed 27-Feb-19 16:52:42

Wobbles I had forgotten all about the Flatley. Yes, Mum had one and used it for years.
Lincolnshire here, and the folding rack was always a clothes horse, and still is for me, no matter what shape.
We have a pulley dryer in the breakfast room, and is always known as the 'overhead

luluaugust Wed 27-Feb-19 16:53:02

Deep South here - clothes horse

grandmar Wed 27-Feb-19 16:58:07

North West here. We had a 'Maiden' and a 'Rack'.
The maiden made a good play tent covered with a blanket when we were little.

grandtanteJE65 Wed 27-Feb-19 17:06:59

We called ours clothes horses in the Glasgow area, and the pulleys were called pulleys,

I miss having a pulley so much that I have persuaded DH to make me one.

grandtanteJE65 Wed 27-Feb-19 17:13:38

Our clothes horses looked like this. I didn't get a concertina one until the mid 1970s.

We called the lines in the garden clothes lines, but I have heard washing line as well. Why not drying lines, I wonder, after all they hung on the drying-green!

lizzypopbottle Wed 27-Feb-19 17:19:23

We had a saying, "I'm so tired I could sleep on a clothes line!" grandtanteJE65 (Liverpool/Southport)

LinkyPinky Wed 27-Feb-19 17:45:54

I have a pull-down one suspended from the kitchen ceiling. It is called a Sheila Maid.

stevej4491 Wed 27-Feb-19 18:58:56

In Liverpool we had the rack and the clothes horse.

Aepgirl Wed 27-Feb-19 19:24:34

Down south ours was an airer, but the wooden one that folded out in a Z shape was the clothes horse. I have a friend from the NW and she calls it a Maiden, as do her daughters even though they were brought up in the south.

mrswoo Wed 27-Feb-19 19:31:44

We called it a Clothes horse growing up in the Midlands. My Ayrshire MiL always called it a winterdyke. I now live west of Glasgow and nobody seems to have heard the word even though Ayrshire is just down the road!
I had a Flatley ~ loved it.

Suers Wed 27-Feb-19 19:36:36

Our Mum had a Flatley drier, and used the slats to wallop us with if we were naughty...

LuckyFour Wed 27-Feb-19 19:40:10

Northwest born and bred - definitely 'maiden'. I still call it that even though I've lived in the southwest fir 40 years.

kwest Wed 27-Feb-19 21:10:03

So that must be where the name Sheilamaid comes from.
The wooden airers that are hauled up and down on rope pulleys.

Rmsusieb Wed 27-Feb-19 21:26:50

Yes same for me Ailsa43. I was brought up in Lanarkshire and we had a pulley in the kitchen and 2 clothes horses. I often wonder how our clothes didn’t smell of whatever was cooking! Or were we just used to it? I do have and use a clothes horse but thank goodness for tumble dryers!

trendygran Wed 27-Feb-19 21:32:23

I remember that we had a pulley in the kitchen of the house we lived in in until I was six. We also had a clothes horse which My Mum had for a long time until we had a flatly dryer. Does anyone else remember those? She also hung clothes on the washing line in the garden on fine days!

CanadianGran Wed 27-Feb-19 21:42:42

It's funny; I think we called it the clothes-horse, but I can't say for sure! We had a wooden accordion type. I remember the fresh scent of clothes brought in from the line outside that were still a bit damp.
Sometimes frozen laundry was brought in as well! Canadian winters with no electric dryer in the house.

We started going once a week to the laundry-mat once there were 4 children in the family!

callgirl1 Wed 27-Feb-19 21:59:54

My mother in Yorkshire called it a clothes horse, my Lancashire grandma said it was a maiden. It made a good tent in summer with a sheet over it!

36MO Wed 27-Feb-19 22:01:56

I grew up in Manchester and we had a maiden and a rack over the fireplace. Must be a northern term as it's a clothes fairer in the south.