Box iron
A cast steel box iron. The iron slug is heated on a fire or stove, picked up with tongs and placed in the iron through the lift-up gate at the rear. Two slugs would be used, one being heated while the ...
Dolly peg
The laundry maid or house wife would use a wooden dolly peg in a dolly tub, twisting it and raising and lowering it to agitate the clothes to get them clean. This was extremely hard work.
From the ...
Duckett type toilet. Circa 1972
This type of toilet was in general use in working class housing in the Potteries from around 1880.
Electric iron
An early 'Glyder' brand 5lb electric iron. Made of steel with black bakelite handle, flex inset and thumb rest. Brown fabric covered flex. It was used by a Barton under Needwood family.
From the ...
Electric steam iron
A Hoover electric steam iron, model 4004. Made of chrome-plated steel and plack plastic. Collected from Ettingshall Park, Wolverhampton.
From the Staffordshire County Museum collection.
Electric steam iron
A Rowenta Trio 19 INOX electric steam iron. This sophisticated iron is a more complex version of the traditional laundry flat iron. It is made of white plastic with a steel base. It has control dials ...
Flat iron
A 'Sylvester' patent flat iron made by Salter & Company of West Bromwich. It is made of cast iron with a tubular steel handle. This type of iron is also known as a 'sad' or 'solid' iron and was heated ...
Gas iron and stand
A gas heated iron, 'The Rythm No375U Radiation'. Gas irons appear to have first been patented in the 1850s. This model has a nickle-plated sole and an iron body with a light green enamel finish. The ...
Godley Lane, Dilhorne
Housing built in 1950s on the western side of Godley Lane.
Goose iron
A tailor's goose iron from Bert Wheeldon's tailor's shop, Abbots Bromley, Staffordshire. Made by J. & J. Siddons of West Bromwich and marked 'Size 8'. Tailor's irons such as this solid iron are extra ...
John Street, Longton.
John Street consisted of many houses and courtyards. This was a closed court off Lower John Street and it is easy to image the unsanitary conditions that people lived in. The houses were surrounded by ...
John Street, Longton. Factory Wall. Circa 1930
This image of John Street portrays a bleak picture of working class life in the city in the late nineteenth & early twentieth centuries. Notice the close proximity of the houses to the large pottery factory. ...
Polly Featherstone, Mill Dale, Alstonefield
Polly Featherstone lived at Polly's Cottage, Mill Dale. She smoked a clay pipe which she kept in the oven of her fire grate. She is seen here washing her laundry using a dolly peg and tub.
Polly's ...
Royal School Orphanage, Wolverhampton
A laundry class at the Royal School Orphanage on Penn Road, Woverhampton. The girls are using flat irons, drying racks and mangles . This image also shows mechanical line shafts and pulleys, and empty ...
Singer Sewing machine
Hand operated sewing machine with horizontal bobbin feed and sliding spool plate, two bobbin holders, tension adjuster and wooden shaped polished handle. Transfer decorated design, including inscription: ...
Skinner & Co, Leek
Lamps, Tin Baths and Buckets.
In earlier times, shop fronts and windows were used to advertise wares much more prominently than today, as can be seen here by Skinner and Co., ironmongers of Derby Street, ...
Spirit iron
This spirit heated sad iron has a perforated steel body. It is heated by an iron element connected to a small cylindrical container fitted to the back. Wooden handle. It is marked as size number 2 ...
United Co-Operative Laundries Association, Campbell Road, Stoke-on-Trent
The United Co-operative Laundry building was on the west side of Campbell road, just south of Spode Street. The original building has been demolished. As part of the Co-operative Society movement, the ...