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When Did People Stop Washing Their Doorsteps?

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Just watched an old black & white film, in which women were doing this? When & why did it stop? 

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I remember it being a common sight when I was staying at my nans house (Upperthorpe) during the 60s and early 70s. They would also sweep the path outside their houses.

 

In answer to your question, I don't know. Maybe it was "the done thing" back then.

 

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Mother used to send me to the Ragman for a piece of donkey stone to donkey stone the steps.

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1 hour ago, poppet2 said:

Just watched an old black & white film, in which women were doing this? When & why did it stop? 

Don’t know when it stopped but more women stayed at home then, so had more time. It was their pride and joy scrubbing their step then putting donkey stone round the edge. If a woman didn’t scrub her step she was considered a dirty cow. When we moved into our first council house, after one week I heard our next door neighbour saying to another neighbour” That new family that’s just moved in, would you believe it ! She’s not even scrubbed her front step yet !”

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I use a Dettol spray on the doormat as the letterbox is very low on our front door.

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My doorstep is made of wood, could be the design of new build houses over the years as one reason why people stopped cleaning them.   Also I agree with Pattricia when she said women had more time because they stayed at home.

Edited by hauxwell

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The most obvious question is why did people do this in the first place. Hard labour for the sake of it.

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It was pride in having a nice clean doorstep and windowsills with nice clean nets to the windows. The house may have been poor inside but cleanliness cost very little.  They also used to sweep the pavements and swill them down.  Same as today - some keep their fronts nice and tidy and clean their front doors and windowsills even if they are PVC  - others do not.  

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There were White cardinal cream and red cardinal cream what people used for their window sill and door step 

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15 hours ago, Padders said:

Mother used to send me to the Ragman for a piece of donkey stone to donkey stone the steps.

Lol - back in the 80's I reckon I bought the last piece of donkey stone in Sheffield as a wedding present for the lass who was getting wed to my best mate.

 

I know, I was too generous 🙂

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6 hours ago, raymondo1952 said:

There were White cardinal cream and red cardinal cream what people used for their window sill and door step 

Didn't they call that "red lead"?

 

I remember as a kid some 60 years ago in a quaint pit village near Doncaster some folk having red (edges) and white (middle) to their doorsteps.

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They stopped doing it at the same time they stopped sweeping outside paths and tidying their gardens or cutting the edges back,there is some Untidy people out there.

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