Hoover Steam Iron.

[Lancs Lad]

This is my Mum's steam iron. See pics.

Found it at the back of a cupboard that I haven't opened in decades.

I remember it from my childhood in the 1970s. I put the new Volex plug on for her when the original big square Ever Ready one smashed when she dropped it on the kitchen floor tiles. I was about seven years old at the time, and Mum had no idea how to wire a plug.

It's got the old red and black colours in the flex. And you can probably see where my Dad very kindly wrapped insulation tape around the flex at the points where the cloth covering had worn away after rubbing against the edges of the ironing board

It must surely be late 60s or early 70s?

Any thoughts, please?

[Graham G3ZVT]

There should be more slack on the earth wire, but for a seven year old it's an excellent job.

[Lancs Lad]

I had a feeling someone might say that about the earth wire.

Thanks, Graham!

[Lancs Lad]

It must have been a considered purchase when she bought it, because we found the hire purchase agreement among her documents after she died in 1983.

Can't remember how much it cost, but it was bought from the Norweb electricity showroom (remember them?) and the repayments were added onto the quarterly electricity bills.

Imagine buying an iron on HP these days - it would be unheard of, I think.

She must have done a heck of a lot of vigorous ironing to have worn all the blue paint off the handle like that!

By the way, it still works, but we stopped using it in 1987, when I bought a new Philips one, which I'm still using because it's been looked after, and is as good as new.

[Heatercathodeshort]

My mum had an older brown version of your Hoover.

It's hard to imagine today but the household budget had to be carefully managed. Very few people know how to budget today and make the weekly income cover the essential items before many so called luxuries that are now considered 'must haves'.

I must admit I don't have a single shirt or item of clothing that needs ironing! I don't think home economics or Domestic Science is on the school curriculum these days. Maybe it will return if the future gloom on prices continues.

Monthly direct debits to mostly unnecessary subscriptions I feel will decrease.

An item that brings it all home was the purchase of a red plastic washing up bowl by my mother from the 'Broadway bargain Stores' around 1953. I was very young at the time but I still remember it's arrival. We stood gauping at it in our rather drab scullery. Washing up bowls had been white vitreous enamel that chipped if knocked and were rather heavy.
Peter's mums iron would have been a carefully considered purchase.
I do have a GEC iron dated on the rating plate as 1969. It has an Ashley plug so I presume it was bought at Curry's. It sits in the old box of mum's brown Hoover.
Well you never know I might need it one day.. John.

[Lancs Lad]

What lovely memories, John! I really enjoyed reading your post. I clearly remember the Ashley plug - it was so big and well-made. Did Ashley only ever make that one design?

When my brother moved into his first house in 1980, with his young family, there was an Ashley plug on the very thick heatproof flex of the immersion heater, plugged into a matching Ashley switched socket, inside the airing cupboard. I seem to recall the plug pins would get quite hot at times, but it never let them down, or became dangerously overheated, whenever they needed hot water.

I actually have one of those duck-egg blue vitreous enamel bowls in my garden. Very chipped around the edges. It's full of rainwater now. The garden birds often drink from it, and so do my cats.

It's too big and deep for the birds to have a bath in it, but I'm glad it's still useful. It must be getting on for a hundred years old now, because it was a wedding present to one of my Dad's great-aunties in the 1920s.

How's that for vintage?

Sorry for going a bit off-topic! You all know what I'm like for meandering off at a bit of a tangent now and again...!

[Lancs Lad]

I was born a couple of years before we went decimal in February 1971, so I've never actually had to use pounds, shillings and pence.

But I'm guessing my Mother bought this iron before the money changeover began (judging by the colours in the flex)

Does anyone have any idea how much a Hoover steam iron would have cost at that time? And what it's equivalent price would be today?

I'm just intrigued by the thought of having to buy it on hire purchase!

I know we weren't all that well off as a family at that time, but buying such a small, insignificant household appliance on HP makes me think it must have been quite expensive.

Can anyone enlighten me, please?

[Refugee]

Originally Posted by Lancs Lad

Imagine buying an iron on HP these days - it would be unheard of, I think.

She must have done a heck of a lot of vigorous ironing to have worn all the blue paint off the handle like that!

The modern way it to buy one with a credit card.
It is the modern never-never.

[Lancs Lad]

I bought a Goblin steam iron for use in my holiday caravan about fourteen years ago from Sainsbury's. It was just another item among the rest of the shopping.

I think it was £6.99.

It beggars belief that my poor Mother had to get into months of debt to buy hers! How sad.

How times have changed! Poor Mum

[Heatercathodeshort]

The 'Broadway Bargain Stores' was one of two shops that were part of the Elite Cinema building [1921] in Wimbledon Broadway. it was owned as so many of this kind of shop were by a very kindly Jewish man. They sold a vast range of new, surplus and bankrupt stock lines always very good quality.
On the ceiling of the entrance there was an Argon filled large circle light that used to be left on overnight. I remember it hummed, probably the neon transformer that powered it! I would have been around 6 years old at the time.

Twenty years later I had a service call to a smart block of mansion flats, EDGE HILL COURT on Wimbledon Hill. After chatting it turned out he had been the owner of the BBS! He had an A823 colour TV.

These shops were so valuable in that post war period selling items that were badly needed and usually impossible to find in that austere post war period. I still have some glass Christmas decorations packed in plain brown divided cardboard box that Dad bought from the BBS in 1946!

To add to the misery you often had to wait a long period for delivery of very simple household appliances. Even obtaining timber required a government licence.

Everything had to be exported!

A simple electric iron of the non thermostat pre war style would have been a valued acquisition. I don't think the people of today could live through it. Other than a short period between 1920 and 1939, the older generation such as our parents had a rough time of it. Dad b 1912 d 1963 Mum b 1915 d 2003. First World War, The depression, World War 2, Post war austerity. It is not surprising that Peter's Mum had to be cautious when she bought that iron even some years on. Regards, John.

[Lancs Lad]

That was fascinating, John!

Thank you so much for such an insight into history.

You should write a book! I would definitely buy it.

[Lancs Lad]

Imagine if you gave a newly-wed couple a washing up bowl as a wedding present these days!

If they were well bought-up they might be polite and say that it was just what they wanted.

But what they'd really be thinking would be, where is the £600 wifi connected dishwasher that we specified on our John Lewis gift list?

Don't get me started on wedding present lists! I might start meandering off at a tangent again...!

Simpler times, 100 years ago, definitely.

[1100 man]

Hi Peter,
What an interesting thread! Of course, I had to dig out my Brown Brother's catalogue from 1938 to see what was available to the housewife (as it definitely would have been then!) in the domestic appliance department.

It's packed full of everything you could ever want - no post war austerity in 1938! I guess business was booming!

There is a rather swish Morphy Richards 'Auto control, safety iron' which comes complete with 9 feet of asbestos insulated 3 core flex .3 year guarantee, price 22/6.

Looking at an online calculator, that equates to about £80 in today's money!

Before the days of injection moulded plastic, computer aided design and far Eastern cheap labour, the iron and all its many parts would have been made in the UK using lots of manual labour. It would also have been manually assembled. Consequently, even the simplest item was expensive to produce.

It also meant that the item was intrinsically repairable as it had been hand built in the first place!

People took absolutely everything to the local repair shop - irons, toasters, kettles, fires etc. The idea of throwing something away when it broke would have been unthinkable!

I find it fascinating how manufacturing & design of products along with modern materials has revolutionised consumer products to the point where you can buy an iron for £6.99!

There are two full pages of irons to choose from in 1938 - one of them being the 'Mysto Nonshock' - make of that what you will - and the 'Competition' which comes with 2 yards of flex and BC adaptor!

Cheers
Nick

[Heatercathodeshort]

Before 1946 most electric irons were not thermostatically controlled relying of the lady of the house to judge it's temperature by switching off the current with a switch fitted to the mains connector. She got incredibly clever at this and very rarely burned a hole in her hubbies pants! These simple irons cost around 30/-, back in the 30s a considerable lump of the weekly income.

Back in the 60s and 70s I used to repair all small domestic appliances, Fires, fan heaters, vacuum cleaners, hair dryers, kettles, toasters, table lamps etc. Most were just simple mains lead replacements elements etc.

Spares were available from Belling, Berry's, Swan Brand and independent manufacturers such as Morphy Richards and Russell Hobbs. Almost any heating element known to man could be obtained at Micaramic Elements of Cowleaze Road Kingston-upon Thames.

Slowly over the years the appliances dropped from the repair lists usually because the price of spares added up to the cost of a new item. Eventually even television receivers and video recorders were scrapped on breakdown.

My miscellaneous rack shows a few irons of various ages. I wonder what the Tilley iron in the centre would have cost? What a palaver to do the ironing !

One thing is for sure they would not have been an impulse buy at a shopping complex. John.

[hamid_1]

Back in the 70s I remember my parents taking their Morphy-Richards toaster and iron to the local electrical shop to be repaired, and buying a replacement kettle element from there, too. By the late 1980s a new kettle was about the same price as a new element, so further repairs were no longer worthwhile. Not surprising really, since the rest of the new kettle was just a cheap plastic jug.

Electrical appliances used to be expensive but have become much cheaper in relation to average earnings over the years. Mostly automated assembly in low-cost countries, the use of moulded plastics and even container shipping have all helped to make this happen. People no longer need to take out a loan to buy a new iron, unlike Lancs Lad's poor Mum. But are we better off as a result? Not necessarily. Other things have disproportionately increased in price. For example, the house my Dad bought in the 1960s cost 3 times his annual earnings. If I wanted to buy the same house now, it would cost me more than 10x my annual earnings. People are having to take on bigger debt mountains.

The Tilley iron is interesting. I have a Tilley lamp and a Primus no.96 cooking stove (made in 1915) that operate on the same principle - pressurised paraffin is burnt like gas. I've only ever seen a Tilley iron in the Museum of Rural Life at Waterperry Gardens near Oxford. There is a video of the curator (who recently celebrated his 90th birthday) demonstrating the old irons.
https://youtu.be/F9OwXbGrt74
Gordon Dempster, the old chap in the video, remembers when some of the museum's items were still in use and is happy to talk about them. Worth a visit if you're in the area. Entry to the museum is free, you only have to pay to visit the gardens.

[McMurdo]

An advert from 1973

[Lancs Lad]

Thanks so much, everyone, for your replies - greatly appreciated!

Yes, Kevin, that's the exact same iron as the one I have.

I do love old adverts like that one - aimed at the 'busy housewife'. Gender roles were definitely more defined in those days...

Liverish husbands indeed!

[Graham G3ZVT]

Originally Posted by Heatercathodeshort

My miscellaneous rack shows a few irons of various ages. I wonder what the Tilley iron in the centre would have cost? What a palaver to do the ironing !

I can just about remember my paternal grandfather, a bespoke tailor in Edinburgh, heating a pair of irons in the fire.

[G6Tanuki]

My mother had a Hoover steam-iron like the one shown in the ad upthread; alas one day she forgot to re-set the temperature dial and ironed something made of Nylon.

It's all but impossible to get melted Nylon off the sole-plate of a steam iron, so the Hoover got binned and replaced by a nice new Morphy Richards.

[paulsherwin]

Originally Posted by rambo1152

I can just about remember my paternal grandfather, a bespoke tailor in Edinburgh, heating a pair of irons in the fire.

My maternal grandmother was still using a passive iron heated on an open coal fire in the early 60s. This wasn't some croft on the Isle of Arran, it was in the rural fringes of Stoke.