I Remember, I Remember...Number 5, Brades Row -- by Susan Price
A washing dolly My mother hated me saying that I was born in a slum, but I was. Brades Row was a terrace of houses at right angles to the surfaced road into Oldbury. The front doors opened directly onto ‘the track’ which was exactly that — an unpaved dirt track leading down from the rough fields of scrub and hawthorn to the road. On the other side of the track stood a row of ‘brew-houses’ or ‘wash-houses’: the names were interchangeable. (‘Wash’ was pronounced with a hard ‘a’, as at the beginning of ‘acorn.’) The wash-houses were of damp, blackened brick. They contained a large stone sink, a pump, and a boiler with a fire-place underneath. This was for heating water for the laundry. It took all night for the boiler to heat the water. Some of the hot water was poured into a tub, which was where the clothes washing was actually done, the clothes being pounded in the hot, soapy water with ‘a dolly’ (see right.) The short legs went into the water and the person doing the ...