General   (General discussion, talk about anything.)

Actually Tom, she was thrilled with the twin tub. Before that she had a gas washing machine in the late 50s. Yes, gas. It was made by Fisher, the body of which was cream in colour and was a top loader with an agitator. She had to plug the gas pipe into the cooker gas outlet, then light it underneath. No idea how it worked, but I think she had to agitate by hand. Before that she had what all other women had – a dolly tub, posser stick, and a scrubbing board, so even the Fisher was better than that.

When she got the twin tub, she’d remove the washing and put it in the spin dryer, thereby eliminating the use of the mangle, then the laundry would go on the drop-down maiden which was on a pulley on the ceiling over the fire place to dry, or be pegged out if the weather was fine.

Women back then worked darned hard in the home, so the “new” gadgets were a godsend back then and she still had it in the 70s but, when we lived in Worcester, she came down to visit and one day we wondered where she’d gone as she was supposed to be making a cup of tea. I went into the kitchen where I’d put a load in the machine to wash, and she’d drawn up a chair to watch it. She’d never seen an automatic before. To her, it was better than the telly! On returning home to Wigan she immediately went out to buy one exactly like mine, and she was made up!