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Bouttemonts Wash House
A popular haunt in times past
A heritage founded on water...
Lainville-en-Vexin has three communal wash houses. Built by the municipality in the second half of the nineteenth century, these public laundries could be used by all the women of the village. Not much remains of this small wash house, which is located in one of the many hamlets in the municipality. The architecture is, however, similar to two other wash houses in the area. Shielded by three outside walls, the two pools are separated by a low wall. We can still see the washing stones tilted towards the pools.
... at the heart of village life
A washerwoman’s utensils would have included a wooden beater, soap, brushes and sometimes a washing crate or box on which she would kneel on the straw floor. Some women washed their small items of laundry at home before coming to rinse them in the wash house. Large articles, such as sheets or hemp shirts, were cleaned at the biannual washing sessions in spring and autumn.
