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?
My great aunt called it a winterhedge. It was a clothes horse at home and the pull down thingy was a creel. Mum was born in Leeds so maybe it came from that area?
My gran had a pulley. My mum had a clothes horse, a wooden pull up concertina thingy. I have a fold in half airer which I only use outside to dry washing when clothes line is full.
Ahh I have question. I said clothes line. My grandmothers and mother said clothes rope (probably because it was it was made of rope unlike my modern pull out plastic line) My mother in law said washing line What do GNers call their clothes washing line?
I remember Kirstie Allsop, in one of her house hunting programmes, coveting a Sheila Maid airer. The woman being shown round, hated it, and Kirstie offered to buy it from her!
The pulley type is sometimes called a Sheila maid - though I think that may be a brand name sheilamaid.com/ Not sure which came first in naming it - maiden or Sheila maid.
We always had one when I was growing up, and have one in the kitchen now - we call it the pulley line, never maiden. The clothes horse was always the freestanding type.
Same here Ailsa, on all counts! I had a pulley in the utility room when our family were growing up, it was great for drying washing, I miss it where we live now but thankfully don’t have as much laundry!
In Scotland, we had a pulley attached to the ceiling in the kitchen and over the cooker. To my knowledge, nothing fell off on to the cooker setting the place on fire!
I think we also had a clothes horse. My mother hung clothes outside on the line even in frosty weather- everything was stiff when brought in.
Grew up NW - clothes horse Live in London - airer but the one we got as a wedding present was made by Minky (seen them in Tesco and John Lewis etc - very good) so we tend to call it Minky now - sounds friendlier
Maiden, never heard of that, has anyone heard the term midden used for the flat roof over the outside loos that ran down the back to back houses in terraces? Grandparents used to complain of tomcats singing on the middens. The normal use of the word(historical) was the piles of rotting veg and excrement etc.?
frankie74 My Mum had a wooden concertina type clothes horse too. We also had a Flatley, a tall metal box electric drier. You hung the clothes over wooden slats. Anyone else have one?
When I was a child in the northwest we had a clothes horse. I think it was a sort of floor-standing, folding wooden rack. The thing I remember best was a pulley with wooden slats that went up and down over the boiler, but I’m not sure what it was called.
I have heard of a maiden, but never heard the term winterdyke before. What a terrific word.