Conjuring up sights and smells of laundry
People at home are busy spring cleaning, so it seems a good time to look back at Horsham Steam Laundry, with the help of a first-hand account. There are lots of items relating to the laundry in the Horsham Museum and Art Gallery collection and Jeremy Knight, heritage and museum manager, has been delving into its history.
A personal account was given to the museum in 1988, by a lady who lived in Pulborough, and Jeremy describes this as ‘ very human’ and ‘fascinating reading’ for those who love the ‘inside the factory’ type of documentaries.
Mrs Annie Orange Hogben started the laundry in Stanley Street in 1888 and began by pushing a handcart around Horsham, collecting and delivering washing.
In the personal account provided by her great-niece, it says Mrs Hogben came to Horsham in the late 1890s with her husband but a newspaper article dated October 1888 tells of an inspection of the laundry, when it had been open only 13 weeks.
As the years went by, the business flourished and though Mr Hogben died at an early age, Annie carried on with the help of one of her sisters.
Later, four more sisters joined her, all unmarried and collectively known as The Miss Wymans. Mrs Hogben’s nephew, Charles Wyman, also joined his aunt in the business after the First World War.
The staff of around 100 included sorters, packers, washers and ironers. In those days of gentlemen’s starched high wing collars and ladies’ delicate laces and garments that had to be goffered, the ironers had to be expert.
Laundry marks were embroidered by hand, using coloured threads and alphabetical letters.
The delivery service covered many of the big country houses around Sussex, including Parham Park and Lord Nethercoat’s estate at Holbrook Park.
Mr Wyman’s daughter said: “I never remember my mother doing any washing at home. The laundry baskets went to and fro, returning with beautifully clean and folded clothes between sheets of blue tissue paper.
“Like a lot of businesses, the laundry suffered a great deal during the war years. The Second World War brought soap rationing, petrol and fuel rationing, and there was the recruitment of the men, and many of the girls were directed into munitions and the armed forces.
“Despite an incendiary bomb and the government’s order to do a ‘bag wash’ for the troops in the area, the business ticked over.
“Luckily, they still had the contract for the Horsham Hospital, but losing this at the end of the war, when the hospital built their own laundry, spelled doom. The machinery was badly worn and new equipment was costly. The age of the washing machine in every household had come.”
Annie Hogben died in the early days of the Second World War and Mr Wyman, under considerable financial pressure, was forced to sell the business in the mid-1950s.
His daughter said: “Modern washing powders will never replace the smell of Sunlight soap, Borax and starch.”