STEAMING tubs of soapy water, rubbing-boards, starches and bleaches were very much part of the washing-day scene for this St Helens laundry staff (and just look how many there are of 'em!) photographed around the turn of last century.

This back-in-time pictorial gem, featuring the girls, boys, women and a handful of menfolk who made up the Oxford Laundry team, was kindly forwarded by reader Teresa Farrelly, formerly of Haresfinch Road and now living in Bispham, Blackpool.

She points out that her late aunt, Teresa Briers (after whom she was named) is featured in the centre of the back row of young girls, wearing a black bow at the neck of her white blouse. She later became supervisor at the Rainhill Hospital laundry.

Teresa is unable to identify any others in the pictorial line-up, and wonders if anyone else recognises a face or two.

Now in her 70s, Teresa isn't sure when the busy laundry went out of business, but she can pinpoint its location. It stood in Oxford Street, St Helens, to the rear of the Orange House pub - the laundry premises later becoming an electrical supplies business before closing down and falling into dereliction some years ago.