Interior. Detail of pressing machine in laundry. Digital image of PB 631.

Description Interior. Detail of pressing machine in laundry. Digital image of PB 631.

Date 1963

Catalogue Number SC 760041

Category On-line Digital Images

Copy of PB 631

Scope and Content Box mangle in laundry, Traquair House, Scottish Borders This shows a chain-driven box mangle in the attic laundry. It consists of a wooden box (filled with rocks) which is rolled over linens to press them. The tablecloths and sheets would be wound around wooden pins (three are still in place under the box) and a handle turned to move the weighted box to and fro. The earliest mangles were used to press linens, rather than to remove water from washing, as later upright models were. Winding the mangle in the estate laundry was hard work, as was washing clothes in coppers or wooden 'peggy tubs' with wooden 'dollys' (a wooden handle with prongs attached to stir the clothes in the water). After drying, clothes were ironed using flat irons heated on the stove. Traquair is the oldest continually inhabited house in Scotland, with its origins in the 10th century. It was the site of a royal hunting lodge in the 1200s, but the house as seen today is based around a c.1512 tower-house with many later additions. The flanking service wings were built in 1695 to designs by architect James Smith (c.1645-1731), who also designed the wrought-iron screens round the courtyard in 1698. Source: RCAHMS contribution to SCRAN.

Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/collection/760041

File Format (TIF) Tagged Image File Format bitmap