Thwaite Mill, Leeds, UK.

The cast iron Yorkshire Range was the backbone of the kitchen. It was the only cooking source, having an oven for bread & cake making & Meat roasting. Stands that held pans over the fire and a boiler to supply hot water.

A polish called Black Leading was applied to the range to make them shine & look good.

In winter the iron shelves of the oven were wrapped up and placed in the bed as bed warmers.

The brass housing at the top held a wind up clockwork motor that slowly rotated the joint of meat hanging from it.

Meat juices and fat dripping from the meat ran into a collection pit in the bottom. this could be scooped out with the ladle and placed in jars to cool into dripping & jelly which was used as a spread on bread or used as an ingredient in recipes of the fat used for frying.

During World War II food was rationed therefore nothing was wasted.

Flat irons are used for ironing washing. They are made from cast iron and have a thick base to store the heat for as long as possible. Most house holds would have more that 1 flat iron so that while one is being used the others would be getting hot placed on a plate directly over the fire. or on the flames of a gas cooking stove.

The large brass flat iron at the front is hollow with a hinged top. Hot glowing coals from the fire would be placed inside. Electric irons were available where households had electricity.

The long poker looking object is a hair curling tool.

To one side of the kitchen is a doorway and a few steps down leading to a washing room. Just to the right of the door is a manual operated washing machine. the first electric one came out in 1908.

At the far side of the room is an older method a washing tub, to the left of the chair, where the washing was manually agitated in a washing tub with either a:

• Washing dolly a long handle with a cross handle at the top & 3 or 4 prongs on the bottom. Used in a twisting motion usually on sturdy items..
• A posser, similar to the dolly but with a semi sphere at the bottom used in a plunging up & down motion, used usually on light weight washing, such as cotton sheets & shirts..

A Washboard, to the right of the chair,  was a frame with a corrugated iron centre against which the washing was rubbed. Later in the 50's became an instrument in Skiffle Bands.

In the far right corner is an open top copper boiler in which clothes were boiled. a fire was lit under the boiler, you can just see the fire door behind the washboard

Leaning against the back wall is a wringer. On it's left side is a crank wheel that revolved the 2 large wooden rollers through which wet clothes where passed squeezing out the water. The gap between the rollers could be adjusted by the 2 large wing nut on the top and gap tension was retained by strong springs hidden by the frame

Washing Machine

A manually operated washing machine Through the lid is a spindle with a dolly inside  that agitates the washing, a turning handle outside operates the dolly. On top on one side of the machine is a wringer to squeeze out the water.

Before modern detergents a product called Dolly blue was dipped into the rinse water. The blue in the water dyed the washing very slightly and masked the yellowing of white goods.

Some of the notable features of the this Sitting room are:

• The large rug made from rag clippings
• Clockwork wind up Gramophone for playing 78 RPM records.
• Wooden Clothes Horse over which clothes were dried.
• Flat iron on the ironing board.
• Lace table cloth
• Tea cosy over the tea pot

The Mills Managers Office had a roll top desk. Various business, account & information books are located on the desk and on shelves in the room.

The weir is basically a dam across the river and deepens it providing a head of water to power the waterwheels. Excess water flows over the top of the weir

Hinged Wooden boards called deals placed on top of the weir could be raised to increase the head of water. These are lowered when the river is in flood.

At the end of the weir is a gate that can be opened to bypass the weir & the mill and lower the water behind the weir. This allows repairs to be conducted on either the weir or the deals.

Thwaite mills has 2 undershot waterwheels with diameters of 18 feet (5.6m) and widths of 14.5 feet (4.26m) & 8.75 feet (2.67m) wide, to power the various machinery. Later they purchased a diesel engine. The waterwheels have a maximum turning rate of 12 rpm.

 An undershot wheel is where the flow of water runs under the wheel. This method is not as efficient as the overshot wheel where water is introduced to the top of the wheel where the weight of water in the wheels paddles adds to the force of the flow.

The wheels rotation speed could be controlled by the amount of water flowing through  the 'Sluice gates' which could be closed to stop the wheel. The water then flows back to the river via the tail race which flows between the Workshop & Drying Sheds.

The waterwheels each rotate a horizontal shaft that provides power to all the machinery via shafts, cogs, gears, belts & pulleys