Wednesday 26 September 2012

The Mangle House, Stoke Golding

Stoke Golding, the "Birthplace of the Tudor Dynasty", on the Ashby Canal has a number of blue plaques dotted around the village.

One marks the former existence of a box mangle at a house.

"At this house in the late 1800s a Box Mangle was in public use".

What a strange thing to commemorate with a blue plaque!

I looked it up: according to the village website the box mangle was used more for "polishing" laundry than for squeezing water out. Possibly an early form of ironing.

2 comments:

Frank Clarijs said...

The word "mangel" existed in Dutch too, as a tool in the washing business. You can see pictures here http://nl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mangel_%28werktuig%29 .
The text says it served to squeeze out the water and would flatten the cloth to avoid or at least ease the ironing.
And thank you for all the nice reading material you provide.

Halfie said...

Thanks Frank.