On a wintery afternoon in December 2022, after collecting Jan Timson from her bungalow we arrived in Carey Gardens on Main Street, to visit Joan Bloomfield. (Joan has now moved on to live at Kirby House). After we had negotiated the stair lift, it was easy to strap Jan into the chair, but how did it work? Eventually, we managed it and up the stairs went Jan, followed by me in hot pursuit. We arrived at Joan's flat and were warmly invited in. We had decided to talk about washing, a subject many would find unlikely, but it was very interesting indeed. Jan began, telling us about her grandmother's house in the Highfields area of Leicester. Her grandparents kept a greengrocery shop in a three storey house. The only power was gas light and the only running water was a cold tap in the scullery, over the stone sink. The toilet was in a shed across the brick-paved yard and next to the toilet was a covered area, where her grandfather stored his hand-cart, on which he collected vegetables and fruit from the wholesale market in Halford Street, Leicester. The heavy mangle was also stored in the area. Jan thinks the space may once have been stables, as at the time many of the houses in Highfields had them. Toilet paper was newspaper cut into squares and threaded on to a loop of string and hung next to the toilet. Jan and family were very lucky as most of the fruit purchased by her grandfather was wrapped individually in tissue paper. After displaying the fruit in his shop, her grandfather then threaded the tissue onto a string and this gave the ladies of the house some "luxury" toilet paper! Jan remembers that in the scullery there was a round brick-built structure with a copper lining and a wooden lid-this was the "copper". She remembers that it had a small metal door in the base and thinks that was the access to the fire that heated the copper. Jan couldn't recall how the fire was lit, but Joan was on hand to describe the process. She said that the fire was usually lit with sticks and paper to get it going and then was stoked with coal in the early days, to be followed later by using coke. Although Joan couldn't recall seeing her mother using the copper to wash clothes, she does remember when the Christmas pudding, in a white basin, which was then covered in a white cloth and tied up with string, was put into the copper to boil. Jan had very similar memories. The copper was then emptied by ladling the water back into the sink. Following the coal driven boiler came the "gas" boiler. This was an enamel cylinder with a lid that was filled with cold water by using a hose pipe connected to the kitchen tap. There was a tap at the base, which made emptying so much easier. The water was boiled up using the gas light at the bottom and then the washing was emersed, before being pummelled by the "dolly". The dolly was a colander-shaped metal article with a wooden handle attached. Joan's mother had a "posser" and a "puncher", both similar to a dolly. There was also a stick, wider at the bottom than the top, which was used for lifting the wet clothes out of the boiler into the sink, where they were rinsed. Last of all came the mangle- a large, heavy instrument into which the clothing was fed at one end and all the water was squeezed out, leaving some very flat items to be shaken out before pegging them on the clothes line. Clothes lines were made of rope not plastic, and had to be taken in every day as otherwise they would soon rot. There were so many memories from Jan and Joan relating to washing day. Joan tells us that when she was at school, she remembers coming home at the end of the school day and seeng her mum still washing clothes. There were memories of the washing line breaking and all the washing ending up on the muddy ground, with the process then starting all over again. Memories of walking into the line prop- Joan still has the scar on her eyebrow. Jan recalls that when living on Main Street if the washing was not on the line by 10am, the neighbours on Desford Road would think something was wrong and come to inquire if all was o.k. (at that time the gardens of many of the houses on Main Street backed up to the gardens on Desford Road). They both spoke of the pleasure in seeing a line full of pristine white nappies, blowing in the wind. If nappies were stained, they were dried in a secluded area where they were not visible to the neighbours. Many houses had a wooden drying rack hanging from the kitchen ceiling and let down by a pully for access. This was used for drying "smalls" and airing other clothing. Everyone had a clothes horse, usually made of wood and if turned onto one side and covered with a sheet made a wonderful tent. We briefly discussed the hand-operated washing machine and then went on to talk about the advent of the spin dryer and how it used to "walk" across the floor. It has been said that sitting on the top of the spin dryer to stop it moving was almost like going for a workout at the gymn. Next, the "twin tub", which was followed by the more modern washing machine of today. We talked about "Rekkit's Blue", the little blue tablet enclosed in a white bag, twisted around at the top. These were added to rinsing water and swished around to make the water blue. They made white clothes appear to be whiter than white. They can still be purchased today. Soap powder for the washing machine was remembered as Omo, Persil, Surf, Daz, Rinso and Tide. Some of these are still around today but with improved formulae and often in liquid or sachet form. Pegs- both Jan and Joan remember the dolly pegs. Although they were invented in the Victorian times, they became more prominent during WWI. As many of us will remember, dolly pegs were made of wood with a split at one end and a round knob on top. During wartime when money was very short, most toys were made at home. Thr dolly peg was the ideal base for a doll. The round knob was painted with a doll's face and clothes were made out of scraps of material- a very well received gift in wartime England. The pegs were originally made by gypsies and sold door to door. Later they were sold in shops. Dolly pegs were followed by the wooden sprung peg -these often fell apart when the spring became weak. Plastic sprung pegs followed and now plastic "cushion" pegs.