From shining brasses to washing clothes, a new book highlights how our forbears handled housework. Sarah Foster examines some of their quaint and quirky habits.

WE all know that life in olden times was hard - no bunging in the washing as you leave for work; no microwave meals to spare you from cooking - but were things really all that bad? In her new book, Old Wives' Tales: spit, polish and elbow-grease, Carol Cooke suggests so - albeit with a touch of wry humour.

The South Shields-born author, who lives in Cleadon, near Sunderland, draws on her own childhood memories, scrapbook hints and others' anecdotes to describe how North-East homes were once run. With a foreword by TV agony aunt Denise Robertson, the book throws up many interesting facts - such as how babies' bootees can be made from old socks. Below is our pick of Carol's past time practices.

Getting the whites white and the skin blue

GETTING the whites white, getting your washing lines up early, and having the washing blowing in the breeze while other people were still asleep was a matter of pride. My mother got up at the crack of dawn to try to stay ahead. My husband says he can't remember his mother getting up early. He reckons it was a class thing, and the aspiring middle classes took it as a mark of pride to get the washing finished by Monday evening.

There were various suggestions for getting the white clothes looking white. One of these was the 'blue bag', which was placed in boiling water. Geoff Sargieson, who lives in Yorkshire, remembers visiting the Recketts Dolly Blue Factory, and everything, including the workers' skin and hair, was a bright, gleaming blue.

Monday's dinner

I DON'T know how they did it, but as well as lighting the boiler, possing the washing, bluing the whites and starching the sheets, while listening out for the sound of the coal wagon, mothers and grandmothers also provided the family with a Monday dinner served at 12 o'clock sharp. The idea was to save some of the food left over from the Sunday meal. This usually meant cold meat and a fry up of potatoes and other vegetables.

Tuesday: Dashing away with the smoothing iron

IF cleanliness is next to godliness, then smoothness and freedom from wrinkles must come a close second. The implement of choice was a flat iron, or rather two flat irons - one to be used and one to be resting within the fire if you had a low-grade black range, or on a special little stand over the fire.

Meppo, Brasso, or HP sauce?

PEOPLE had their favourite concoctions with which to keep the brass pole and the assorted brass plaques which adorned their walls bright and shiny. Meppo and Brasso were two brands you could use for the brass rod above the fireplace, but the Thompson Scrap-book details the following alternative:

Metal polish

Mix together the contents of a two penny tin of metal polish, three tablespoons of whiting and four tablespoons of paraffin oil until smooth. Then add the remainder of a pint of paraffin. Total cost 4d.

The front

LOTS of families lived in terraced houses or flats, and part of the weekly work was to make sure that the front looked clean and smart. People washed the front door regularly and if you were halfway decent, you swept and cleaned your part of the pavement.

Less glamorous uses for silk stockings

YOU didn't need to worry about being held up if you ran out of polishing cloths. The very solution was there - according to the Thompson Scrap-book - in your stocking drawer, in the shape of old silk stockings:

'Your old silk stockings will make such nice dust cloths. They neither make dust nor scratch. Cut the feet off, then cut them through lengthwise, then lay them so as the top of one comes to the bottom of the other, and stitch the lengths on a sewing machine.'

Weekend: fun, fun, fun

WEEKENDS for our parents and grandparents were times for catching up on all those little tasks which seemed to get crowded out during the week, shopping in a leisurely way, and perhaps curling up at night with the odd bit of dressmaking or altering:

Boots for baby

The busy mother can take daddy's wool socks that are too worn for him and make baby warm and serviceable bootees by cutting them to fit the foot, then sewing by machine and running some pretty wool through to tie with. They are warmer than the ones you buy and one can always have plenty on hand if necessary.

* Old Wives' Tales: spit, polish and elbow-grease by Carol Cooke is available from local book shops or direct from Business Education Publishers Limited, The Teleport, Doxford International, Sunderland SR3 3XD, priced £4.95 plus £1 postage and packing.