Millbay Laundry

From the collection of

The Box
Established in 1992, the South West Film & Television Archive collection spans from 1893 to the present day containing more than 250,000 items. Formed from a variety of depositors, including broadcast news and programmes material from the Westward and TSW archive. In 2018 the archive collection transferred to The Box in Plymouth.

Millbay Laundry


Help keep your relationship on track by outsourcing your laundry!

This is an advert for Plymouth-based Millbay Laundry, Cleaning and Dyeing Co Ltd who ran laundry services in many locations in the South West of England. It stereotypes the woman and her pile of ironing but offers the perfect solution: Hooray for Millbay they will launder leaving you with more free time to hug. This is from the 1960s when the company had two hundred and fifty high street branches and vans and agents.

The Millbay Laundry factory started out small in 1885 and in 1896 a factory was built on Millbay Road. It grew into quite a business with large public contracts but with the boom did not last. With a rise in people's standard of living, the growth of new domestic appliances along with easier fabrics and efficient detergents, the need for laundry services declined. Kneels of Exeter took over the Millbay Laundry business in 1972.


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