Free Life Below Stairs by Alison Maloney Page B

water to prevent fading. They were then hung on a clotheshorse in the drying
room, away from harmful rays of the sun. Woollen garments were washed in cold water, to prevent shrinkage. The copper pots then had to be cleaned, the York stone floor of the wash house scrubbed
and everything put back in its correct place.
    Thursday and Friday
    The laundry maid’s week would end with the starching, mangling and ironing. Household items such as tablecloths, aprons, collars, shirtfronts and cuffs would need to
be stiffened to avoid wrinkles and, to do this, they were dipped in a paste made from starch and water. The actual starch could be bought but home-made varieties made from potato, rice or wheat
were also common, and cheaper. For lace, of which there was an abundance in the smart houses, sugar was added to the last rinse and the delicate fabric was then laid between white cloths and placed
under books to help it dry flat. ‘Very delicate lace may be wound around a glass jar or bottle,’ suggested the magazine Home & Health in 1907,
‘then washed […] leaving it on the glass jar till dry.’
    Linen without frills or folds, such as sheets, tablecloths and napkins, was passed through the heavy metal mangles, with two large wooden rollers, to squeeze the water out and flatten it. It was
then dried, folded and put into a linen press, a heavy wooden contraption that resembled a huge flower press, to keep it flat.
    Pressing the clothes, especially the fine ladies’ dresses, was an arduous and fiddly task. Electric irons were invented in 1882 but appeared unsafe, as the few who had used them reported
strange noises, flying sparks and blinding flashes of light. A safer one was finally introduced in the US in 1904 but most households carried on with the traditional irons, heated by the fire,
until well after the First World War. Most often the laundrymaid would use heavy flat irons, weighing around 10 lb each, which were heated on an ornate stand by the fire.
Two or three would be used in rotation so that when one was in use and losing heat the others were warm enough to replace it immediately, preventing unnecessary breaks in the process. Some used a
box iron, a hollow metal model that could be filled with hot coals and therefore stay warm for longer and, for thefrills and fluting, there was a goffering iron, a strange
metal test tube into which a hot metal poker was inserted before the item was wrapped around the outside, although these were dying out by the Edwardian era.
    An early advertisement for a wrought-iron mangle
    The Wash House
    In the ‘big houses’, the work was done in a wash house, which was either a few rooms attached to the kitchen or a single-storey
     building across the yard. It was comprised of a washing room fitted with a series of tubs and coppers, placed at a convenient height for the maid, and a stove to heat the water, unless
     plumbing allowing hot running water was fitted. The floor was of York stone slabs with a drainage system to draw away the water that slopped on the floor and a flue to draw off the steam.
     Next door was an ironing room and a drying room, ideally heated with a furnace. The laundry maid spent most of her time in the hot steamy environment, often with her hands plunged into
     very hot water, and was left with chapped, reddened hands as a result.
    For those households that did not boast a laundry maid, there were local laundresses or washerwomen who would take the dirty fabric away on a Monday and return it, washed, starched and
     pressed, later in the week.
    SPRING-CLEANING
    When the winter weather turned warmer and the leisured classes began to organize their calendar around forthcoming social events such as the Derby, Cowes week, the London
season and the shooting season, life below stairs took on a less monotonous routine. Families with more than one home would move from their country home to their London house for months, taking
selected servants with them but leaving