The Bag Wash.

Thanks 00mam00, I'll give that a try.

I had heard of bagwash, but don’t think I had seen them. Recently we were on holiday in Cornwall, and mooching around the back streets of St Ives, I saw a couple of bags of laundry, left outside the cottages. The bags looked like sail canvas, red, certainly heavy duty. Maybe they were holiday lets and the changeover laundry waiting to be collected.

Boat, if you have a smooth clean surface, lay the item out when wet and smooth it with your hands, then drip dry on a hangar.

My Mum had an immaculate sack, our name printed with black indelible marker. Into this would go all the sheets and towels, and she took them to 'The Bagwash' as it was called; a tiny local shop. We collected it the next day, washed and dried, and no doubt this saved my Mother so much work. She spent all day each Monday washing clothes by hand and wringing items that would survive the wringer. I have just remembered that the neck of the sack was always closed with a twisted steel 'wire' with loops on each end - this was used every week and lasted forever. I had forgotten all of this completely - lovely to remember this childhood weekly event!

allule.

When I read your post I realised I hadn't ironed anything for about three years.

When I moved on to my narrow boat I brought the iron with me but not the huge ironing board because there was no room to store it..

Since then I have realised that if you wear eg a blouse for a couple of hours it will, sort of, flatten out.

However I have totally failed to keep in mind that you are bound to be invited to a posh/semi-posh do at some time. It's imminent. Help!!!

We had a flat in Southampton in 1964, with a cupboard outside the front door. We left washing in the cupboard, and it was delivered back ready to iron...I used to iron in those days.
Talk of collar stiffeners reminds me of my father's party trick. He stuck a celluloid stiffener into the mouth of the sailor on the Senior Service packet, lit the end, and it puffed.

Well - thank goodness for automatic washing machines! Back in 1994 we took my Nana on holiday with us to the Isle of Wight and visited Calbourne Mill Rural Museum. For my Nana this was like stepping back in time, seeing the kitchen appliances and everyday items that she used as a young girl. She loved it and loved telling us all about using them. My mother had a twin tub washing machine which had to be pulled across to the sink when in use. She loved using that despite the fact that there were automatic washing machines available.

My mum moaned about how hard life had been with 2 small children in a bombed out flat in London post war. I know she was thrilled to get her first washing machine with a wringer. Did she use a laundry? I never asked her. She was always telling me I was so fortunate compared with her mother and grandmothers' hard lives. We emigrated to NZ in 1950 with other £10 Pohms.

My MIL was a launderess as were 2 of her sisters and I believe their mother. They all lived in the same street and took in laundry. I remember stories of bags of wet washing being forgotten until someone noticed a mouldy smell. The items had to be boiled and bleached again to get them clean before delivery. MIL loved doing laundry and strangely so does my daughter.

In the mid forties we shared a washhouse in our communal backyard with three other families who each had a wash day. My aunt came as well on our day and after the washing was finished my cousin and I (we would be around three or four years of age) were bathed in the big tub. I must have loved it because it is one of my few memories of my early childhood

Sorry to be ignorant but did the washing come out of the bag to be washed?
My mum had a boiler which came with our council house. Then they bought a Hotpoint Countess washing machine. She was so pleased to have a proper washing machine. I was just as pleased when I got my first automatic washing machine after years with a twin tub.

I used to use the laundrette across the road from the house I lived in as a student. The very nice lady there (shades of Dot Cotton?? ) would do a bag wash but you didn't have to wait a week, we could usually pick up the next day. Clean folded clothes that did need an iron!

We opened a residential home for adults with learning disabilities in the early 70s. It was a County council establishment and we had 25 residents. Initially we had a twin tub washer to do everyone's personal laundry. Fortunately bedding went to the laundry. The night staff were kept busy washing, rinsing, spinning. The tube often slipped off the sink and flooded the laundry room. Good old days eh ?

Our first machine was a twin tub with a spindrier. I also had those wooden tongs.
Washing was all done on a Saturday morning in the kitchen. Was it load after load in the same water beginning with sheets? I enjoyed the novelty at first. We were in a top flat and the drying green was far away. When baby arrived with nappies to wash, the fun aspect waned. We were desperate to buy a house with a garden and an automatic washing machine that could be plumbed in.

When I got married in 1978 I was handed down a single tub washing machine with a wringer. It was not automatic and you had to pump the water out and refill with clean to rinse. It was a lengthy business.

Bijou.

I don't remember the cats' whisker radio in my own childhood but in the early 70's we bought the Ladybird book, "Build Your Own Radio", and made one with our 7 year old son. All three of us found it miraculous.

Ilizie. I remember accumulators that we used to power early radios. When I was very small my grandmother asked what it was and I had difficulty in pronouncing the word.
When I was about two we had cats whisker radio and had earphones. Only one station which played mainly orchestral music.

we didn't have a bagwash in our village, but I found this collection of descriptions and memories:
www.1900s.org.uk/1940s60s-bagwash.htm

11izie

By accumulators do you mean the batteries that radios ran on in the 40/50s? Quite heavy, glass jars that had to be taken to a shop and exchanged for for charged ones every week.

You had to be very careful bringing them back as the liquid was acidic and would burn your legs if it slopped over.

My nan always used the laundry and i believe she worked in a laundry as a young girl.Her sheets and towels, pillow slips and tableclothes all would arrive to her house in brown paper and were snowy white and smelt of soap , it facsinated me as a child. At home she would boil her 'smalls' in a bucket on the gas stove and i would help her put everything through her mangle which she kept in the garden shed. Her washing was always soft and smelt beautiful. No fabric conditioners int hose days so not sure how she managed it.

I can still see my mum ironing my father’s detached collars, with a flat iron. She used ‘curl’ the collar as she ironed it so that it was ‘neck shaped’ ready for my father to wear.

Just done a Bag Wash in Cape Verde to reduce the amount of washing on arrival home. Turned around for wash, dry and iron was 24hours

At last I know the actual meaning of bagwash. Thank you. Never seen it in practice in my life but did experience the washouse and the laundrette. In the services we had a laundry collect and delivery service.

We didn't have bagwash in the village where I grew up. Would have been wonderful, but maybe beyond our means.
Washing was such a performance. When I was very small the washing was done in stone copper, built into a corner of the kitchen, with a place for a fire underneath to heat the water. We then progressed ( the luxury! ) to a gas copper, freestanding. Then when I was a teenager we had a single tub machine with an electric wringer which my mother kept as a fall back long after she had an automatic. And , of course, washing day had to be on Monday. If the neighbours didn't see any evidence of washing they assumed you were very ill or dead,or , even worse, a bad housekeeper.

does anyone remember accumulators? No hiding one's age on this site.