Derby County: Mum washed Rams' football kit

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AFTER reading about people’s memories of the Baseball Ground and the Rams,  I thought I would add mine. I was born in Shaftesbury Crescent, in 1920, being the youngest of nine children. We lived across the road from the Baseball Ground and my dear mother, Hannah Palmer Buxton,  washed the footballers’ kit for 16 years.

It was very hard work in those days – all done by hand, using two large dolly tubs, dolly pegs and an upright mangle. There was no hot water on tap but we did have a copper boiler and a fire underneath to heat the water.

The kit used to include bath towels as big as sheets. They took a lot of washing and drying in the winter. We used to have washing lines strung all over the house.

When I was 12 years old, I took over my elder brother’s job of taking the clean kit, all washed, dried and aired, back to the Baseball Ground during my school dinner break.

I used to run home from school as there were two big parcels, so I had to make two journeys. I went in through the main entrance for officials, pushing the door open with my bottom. Then I would walk along a long corridor to a big airing room at the end where they kept the football kit.

Sometimes I would see some of the footballers. I often saw Sammy Crookes. I remember the manager Mr Jobey, and the trainers, Larry Edwards and Bill Bromage. Mr Bromage usually attended to me. As I entered, he would say: “Keep your language down, boys; there’s a young lady coming.”

He would pay the bill and take the kit from me.

The picture shows a crowd of fans going to the football match in Shaftesbury Crescent in 1945. It is particularly memorable for me as my mother is standing in her doorway, watching the crowds. She gave up the job of washing for the Rams when I left school in 1934.