A laundress of Wimborne

By Bruce Jensen
Thanks to Paul Dear for the historical research.

While looking through the archives in Dorchester I found several receipts for washing like the one in the photo. This one documents the payment of 2 pounds 10 shillings to ‘Sarah Dyke for washing Surplices’ March 25, 1837.

She was illiterate – all the receipts are signed with her mark. Holding this receipt in my hand, almost two centuries later, made me want to find out more about her.

In the 19th century being a laundress was one of the few occupations open to married women and widows, but it was hard. The water had to be carried from a pump or well and a full wash required many gallons. It was heated in a copper, a large metal boiler set in a brick firebox in the corner of the kitchen or scullery, until it was hot enough to dissolve the soap and the grease
on the clothes.

The fire would be lit very early in the morning to have the water ready for the laundry after breakfast. The clothes were scrubbed with lye soap and pounded with a ‘dolly’. After being put through a wringer, rinsed twice and starched, the wet clothes were wrung out and flattened using a mangle, hung to dry, then ironed.

Susannah Phillips (Churchwarden Webb got her name wrong) was born in Canford Magna in 1802. In 1826 she married John Dyke, a bricklayer from Stallbridge, and they lived on King Street. The couple had 4 children, 3 of whom survived: Phoebe, Anne, and Richard. In 1841 her husband died and Susannah continued to work as a laundress. In 1859 she married a painter named William Hammett. She is listed as residing in King Street without occupation in the census of 1861, and died in May 1880.

These bare facts can’t really sum up a life that was long and difficult, but I wanted to shine a little light on Mrs. Dyke, as a way of saying thanks for her service to the Minster.