maiden, clothes-horse or something else?

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.

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

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!

Yep, Black Country, 'the 'Orse'.

Black Country - clothes horse

Maden in Lancashire x

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!

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.

It was definitely a maiden here in Macclesfield !

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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!

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!

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!

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!

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

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

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

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.

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.

In Liverpool we had the rack and the clothes horse.