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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?

GabriellaG54 Wed 27-Feb-19 23:29:55

Racks are great. I wish I had one here.
I definitely dislike and loathe rotary dryers. The cords are very thin and leave lines on the clothes wheras rope clothes lines are thicker.

Lilyflower Thu 28-Feb-19 06:30:40

We call ours ‘Auntie Connie’s airers’ after the kindly lady who donated us two hinged, wooden clothes horses when she bought new plastic replacements. We thought we had the best of the bargain. I painted one and varnished the other and repair them when the cloth hinges wear through and they have been in continuous use for twenty years now.

JackyB Thu 28-Feb-19 06:35:20

From my childhood I remember a wooden clothes horse that my father made. He made many lovely wooden tables, chairs, and small furniture items. That same clothes horse still stands in my mother's airing cupboard and I use it to keep my towels on when I stay with her.

JackyB Thu 28-Feb-19 06:40:03

PS It looked exactly like the one in GranTante's picture so perhaps he didn't make it! Either way, it has survived nearly 70 years.

kitnsimon Thu 28-Feb-19 06:41:27

It was definitely a maiden here in Macclesfield !

eebeew Thu 28-Feb-19 07:11:17

My family called the one we pulled up to the ceiling a creel. No idea how it was spelled. The one with its feet on the ground was a clothes horse.

seasider Thu 28-Feb-19 07:37:21

I grew up in West Yorkshire. We had a a clothes horse. The pulley thing was a creel or clothes went out on't line. My auntie had a Winter 'edge. I didn't realise it should be hedge! I don't like housework but strangely I love hanging out washing .
My friend's mum used to loop her sheets on the line and one day we thought it was a good idea to climb inside them. They fell in the mud and we were in big trouble!

andiacc1 Thu 28-Feb-19 15:32:11

Maden in Lancashire x

SueDoku Thu 28-Feb-19 16:12:44

Black Country - clothes horse

Blinko Thu 07-Mar-19 12:00:18

Yep, Black Country, 'the 'Orse'.

heavensjoys Thu 07-Mar-19 12:21:19

After my Darling Mum died when I was 10, I was in charge of the laundry (which I loved). When I was, 16 my lovely Dad got me a large sideways expanding white plastic airer, with his Embassy coupons, bless him.

I use the wonderful airer to this day (some 50 years later). Every time I use it, I think of my beloved Dad, with so much love. It is still a fab piece of kit, even if the plastic has cracked off the metal frame in some places!

H1954 Thu 07-Mar-19 12:25:58

N/E Midlands and we called it the clothes horse. Also served as a tent with an old bedsheet thrown over it! Happy days ?

sako98 Thu 28-Jan-21 20:30:10

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Whiff Fri 29-Jan-21 05:27:28

Until 18 months ago lived in the West Midlands always a clothes horse and my aunt's had wooden racks on pulley suspended from the ceiling. I still call it a clothes horse and made my grandson a clothes horse den. My daughter always calls them airers . It's like different parts of the country have different names for a a lot of things. It was a cob in Midlands but bap , barm or roll or in others. But to me a roll was oblong not round. In the Midlands we never put butter on bacon sandwiches but other parts of the country do. Never understood the double fat. There's an old saying 'there's nout so queer as folk.' Just means we are all different which makes life interesting.