Donkey stoning

I first went to Manchester many, many years ago, there were still whole areas of the city derelict from wartime bomb damage. However, as I’m not that old there were a whole other areas full of bright shiny new buildings (they weren’t ‘new builds‘ in those days) and an air of excitement, enthusiasm and optimism. Maybe that was just me, excited, enthusiastic and optimistic! Manchester and the north was to me in many ways like a foreign country. There were lots of things which were different, and lots of words and sayings which I had no idea what their meaning was, but absorbed and eventually understood.

Among them was a phrase referring back to a previous era and talking about women’s lives in the past and the hard work they undertook in the home as well as at work. There was a phrase about house-proud and hardworking wives “donkey stoning” their front door steps.I guessed they were cleaning, not only the inside but the outside of their homes and being proud of that hard work. However, what I didn’t realise that a donkey stone was an actual thing, it was a sort of scouring block, which no doubt took off not only the dirt, but over time, its top layer.

I lived for many years in Manchester, before moving to Oldham, a mill town on the edge of the Pennines, a great place to live and where I spent many happy years teaching – and also where I met my husband and had my two children! Back to donkey stoning – the name came from an actual brand of these stones, ‘donkey brand’ was Edward Read & Son, a company which  manufactured these stones. They were first used in mills to clean greasy steps to make sure workers didn’t slip, and were made from ground up stone, cement and some sort of bleach. It wasn’t long before it became apparent that there was a domestic use which proud “housewives” would employ.

There’s a sea shanty entitled “Donkey-riding” which is apparently about seaside donkeys, but in fact means something very different – and nothing to do with donkey stoning either. That, however, is for another time! The donkeys in my rather faded featured image are on Weston-super-Mare beach and they are indeed seaside donkeys!