Mam would be up at the break of dawn, summer or winter, and into the wash-house to prepare for washing day. The copper boiler would be filled by bucket from the outside tap,- if it wasn't frozen- and the fire would be lit under the boiler. The clothes would be boiled, scrubbed, possed  with the poss-stick, rinsed, the water squeezed from them between the wooden rollers of the mangle, and then pegged to the clothes line in the back lane.