Green Meadows Laundry "

Lower Common, Buckley

1955

(After Powell's Pottery was closed due to material shortages for the pottery, the site became a food store during WWII. Large lorries would arrive with large packages containing tins, sugar etc. -Sally Tyson)

(see 91.3, George Lewis' Diary Part Five: 2nd Jan 1950 for the opening of the laundry)

GREEN MEADOW LAUNDRY

1. Was started off by Harold Stanley and Samuel Stanley (entrepreneurs) c. 1949 on the site of Powell's Pottery, The Willow. They bought the site.

2. Existing buildings used to house all the laundry equipment with slight modifications.

3. Newish! steam boiler installed fuelled by small coal.

4. Equipment as far as I can remember:

a) industrial washing machines

b) centrifugal spin dryer for removing wash water

c) calender (roller-type machine for pressing sheets, table cloths, etc.)

d) equipment for "laundry marking" articles to be washed

e) shirt press

f) ironing boards

g) area to sort and pack laundered clothes

h) laundry van for collection and delivery

5. Dry cleaning unit installed.

6. Carpet beating equipment installed. ie: enclosed box, approx. 4yds long, with revolving wooden shaft with pieces of belting attached. Fan installed to remove dust.

7. Industrial wet carpet shampooing equipment.

8. Equipment to mix starch solution.

9. The effluent from the laundry allowed to soak away onto the Lower Common!! Buckley Urban District Council involved (pollution). Simple filtration and purification system installed in 1953.

10. Staff:

- Laundry manager (professional)lived at the laundry. Part of the building made into a flat

- Van driver

- Approx. fifteen females

The work was labour intensive.

11. Later on, Lythgo's arrived on site, installed ovens and started a process of vitriously enamelling steel products. This firm also went onto industrial sites to do work in situ.

12. Laundry closed in the early 1960s and Lythgo's continued on the site and expanded their operations. The purchaser of the laundry business was interested in the extra rounds brought to their own laundry and they sold the site to Lithgo's.

Author: Williams, Emrys

Green Meadows Laundry "

Lower Common, Buckley

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