Description
A woman cleans the pavement. Housewives in the 1930s would often use donkey stones to whiten their steps and the pavements outside their houses.
Scrubbing the pavement By Humphrey Spender - April 1938
- Copyright Bolton Council
- Image ref. 1993.83.19.05
- Print ref. INV:19212
- Print ref. INV:20927
- Page author:
notice the bottle of Lanry next to the bucket.This was locally produced bleach.
Dont forget the bottle of lanry bleach
Donkey stones were produced in both creamy yellow and white. You could get them in exchange for scrap or clothing from the rag and bone man who used to ride is horse and cart round the streets shouting Bone, Rag Bone. They were used to clean doorsteps up to the mid 1950s.
In Bolton, it was traditional for Bolton-born housewives to use the white stones while the Irish used the cream. Colour discrimination, even then!
I was instructed by my mum to use a donkey stone and bleach if we ever had a death in the street. When I scrubbed the outside of our house clean she would wait for the hursre to come past and throw the bleach water over the pavement I had just cleaned. She said it was to stop me getting sick!
So what happened to Lanry? We grew up in Altrincham (not a million miles from Bolton) during WW2 and for us Lanry was a generic like Hoover – no-one asked for bleach, they asked for Lanry.
I was the owner of Lanry agency, and served it to 300 outlets, it was produced by Mc Brides of Middleton it was around the 1980s, after a short time I sold it on,
Thanks Ray. Any idea what happened to it afterwards?
We used Lanry over in the West Riding (Featherstone). Looked like a lemonade bottle (!) and I remember my mother saying the name came from the last bits of the names Alan and Harry somebody?
We also used Lanry and it did get it,s name from Alan and Harry Towers.
We lived in Reddish,Stockport then and it was a great treat to return the empty Lanry bottle to the shop, we got fourpence, that got me into Reddish Baths and a penny hovis from Hobsons opposite afterwards.
Who were Alan and Harry Towers??
It’s a joke in our home here in penzance for some reason l remember it from when l was a child in Bradford West Yorkshire in the fifties My late mother used it all the time as she cleaned the outside of our back to back house there was only Landry nothing else nothing else
I lived in Harpurhey 1943-1968 and my mum had a ladies hairdressers shop on Rochdale Road. We always bought and used Lanry and o think I remember Melry?
Sheila Hallmark
My father ran hardware business in rural Leicestershire from the early fifties up to the late sixties and sold Lanry bleach. As far as I know ours was the only place locally that sold it. The business was bought from my grandfather who ran it from the early twenties up to selling it to my father. Lanry had certainly been sold in my grandfather’s time.
It was never common in Leics, and I haven’t seen it for years. I’ve often wondered what happened to the brand. I have lived in Kent for nearly 40 years and people here have never heard of it.
I’d love to know when it stopped being made.
Anyone remember the name of the bleech?
It was called Twenty Grand. The CO OP sold it.always remember going to the co op for my mum’s shop.
It was made in the Mill (can’t remember the name) at the bottom of Apethorn Lane SK14 5DR which is off Dowson Road/Stockport Road Hyde.
Production stopped aprox. 30 years ago. The man who demolished the Mill used the bricks to build a large house for himself on the site.
I remember my mother using Lanry and Melry in Manchester in the late forties and early fifties. I believe they were very similar.
My father and mother had a corner shop on Bacup Road Cloughfold nr Rawtenstall in the 40s 50s which closed mid 60s. Larry was a very popular product which cane in wood crated from the wholesaler.
The bottles were 4d on return and the crate 1s 6d.
I remember a saying people used, not just kids, referring to anyone wearing spectacles with thick lenses that they “wear glasses like Lanry bottle bottoms”.
I’m sure it was still being used in the ’70s.
Re Michael Nother,
Many happy memories Charlie and his white bib and brace overhauls at Reddish baths, then over to Hobsons
No litter in those days took bottles back for deposit.
Remember Lanry bleach was always advertised on the back of buses back in the sixties (Burnley area)
I remember your mum and dad’s shop being a customer as a young boy living on Hareholme Lane in the 50s , yes Lanry was exactly as you described it.no plastic those days !
I grew up in Salford in the 1950s and often saw adverts for Lanry which just gave the name without saying it was a bleach. I always wondered what sort of product it was.
I live in Stockport & my Nana used to use Lanry to clean her grids & something called Mountain Zone.Afterwards she’d give me the cream donkey stone to draw a line round the grid.Then I cleaned her front steps with Cardinal Red to get a really good shine.I felt privileged to be allowed to clean her front step.This was the 1950s.