Mangle

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An example of a 19th or early 20th Century clothes mangle. Upright, geared mechanisms like this were used primarily to assist in drying clothes, by easily wringing water out, and appear from about 1850 after being invented in Lancashire. Earlier mangles were in operation throughout medieval northern Europe, though the function of these was more as a clothes press. Mangles seem an anachronism in the age of home washing machines and dryers, but use one and it’s not hard to imagine the time-saving a geared machine would offer on washing day.

This example sits outside the old Coroner’s Room and Morturary, now the museum of Robin Hood’s Bay, on the North Yorkshire coast. The wrought iron states it was made up the road in Whitby.

197 images taken February 2022, processed in Metashape and Blender.