Name a chore....

henetha I use Brasso all the time.

KatyK, reminds me of the time when I thought mum was going to the shop carrying her bag but it was for the coal that had dropped off the wagon when he went round a sharp bend. I had to pick it up hoping that nobody would see me too. Oh the shame. It was before the coal-man was due.

I used to love chopping wood for the fire.

Yes Ellan the shame!

Cleaning out the grate and preparing it for being lit.
Bringing in a scuttle of coal.
Laying the table, clearing (siding) the table after a meal.
Going to the local shops ( in all weathers.)
Walking the dog.
Cleaning the bathroom on a Saturday morning.

Washing hen's eggs!
My Grandparents had a large orchard and Nan used to keep chicken. The eggs collected daily were then washed with a damp cloth and sorted into trays ready to be collected by the Egg marketing board. So when I stayed during all the school holidays we would sit in the small scullery chatting as we did them.
Often had all the potato peelings etc cooking away in an old saucepan on a primus stove at the same time, these were fed to the chicken.

Cleaning out the grate. Making newspaper into "plaits" and laying the fire with the wood Dad had chopped.
Cleaning brass which I hated!

I was about 10y (we moved I was 11y so it was before that) and I was sent to the local habadashery shop to buy a spool of n***er brown cotton. It was on the label - I read it on the way home.
Bizarre to think of that now.

That colour description was used quite a lot back in the 50's. Urmstongran. Even the shoe polish.

I washed and dried up after our evening meal and Sunday lunch. My brothers did nothing.

Sprinkling the dog with flea powder and waiting for them to crawl to the surface then picking them off and dropping them into a bowl of water. This was done sitting on the garden steps, as was shelling peas which I enjoyed.

?

Cleaning the silver cutlery! I hated it!
I was cleaning silver yesterday (found it stored in the attic!) and reminiscing about how we children always had to clean the silver (plate) when we were young.

Perhaps I'll get the DGC to do it next time!

Helping Mum fold the sheets - we used to get hold of two corners each, walk towards each other, turn the sheet, repeat etc until it was a manageable size.

Well just call me Cinderella! Every evening after school the list of jobs that my sister and I were asked ordered to do included: shopping for that night's meal, peeling the potatoes/vegetables, boiling the baby's bottles and teats (there was always a baby!), feeding/changing/walking the baby and playing with the toddler while mum cooked the meal. Then after we had eaten there were the 'pots' to be washed (in Daz or Omo powder!) and dried and the kitchen floor to be swept and washed - usually twice over because there was always fault to be found necessitating us doing it again.
On Saturdays we turned the mattresses and made the beds together, I cleaned the bathroom and swept the stairs while my sister swept the floors and washed the lino in the bedrooms. I cleaned and polished the tiles in our tiny hallway and one or both of us would clean the brasses. Our stepfather would go straight to the pub after finishing work at midday and then would come the Great Inspection when he drunkenly rolled in. On Saturday afternoons in the summer I would escape by taking my little sisters to the park. In the winter we would set and tend the fire and keep the little ones entertained. It's how life was for us until I was twelve and that particular stepfather left. I have few fond memories of home during my childhood.

grannyactivist I only listed two jobs amongst several that I was expected to do - but not as much as you by the sounds of it, which sounds grim.

My mum never expected me to do chores. I guess I was lucky because she used to say that I'd have it all to do when I was married. But I do remember holding my arms wide open with a skein of wool on them so she could wind it into a ball. I also used to drop her co-op order book into the shop on my way to school.
She was a lovely mum and I feel sad right now just thinking about her......

Using the carpet beater on the floor rugs when they were hung over the washing line.

I also dropped off the grocery order on my way to school and enjoyed beating the daylights out of rugs with that cane beater. In my teens, I clipped the hedge in the front garden and, when I was quite little, 'helped' my dad to sow carrots. Raking out the cinders wasn't exactly fun!I don't think I ever felt compelled to do anything. It was just taken as a matter of course that if I was asked to do something I'd do it.Nor was my pocket money conditional on my mucking in. And now I am wondering what was left for my two younger sisters to do.

Oh Jalima, I can remember the sheet folding----with horror if I " twisted " it. Tablecloths the same ( best damask ones )

I used to always help my grandmother with polishing the brass. We would have milky Camp coffee and bread and cheese while doing it.

Some friends had an au pair, and I remember how we would be press ganged into helping to polish the parquet floor in the hall.

She would apply the polish, then tie dusters around our feet. Heavy going at first, but as the polish got worked in, it was possible to "slide" the length of the hall!

Grating horseradish, an open air job as it was so pungent

Grannyactivist ??
Because you had to be such a drudge at so young an age I bet you were a lovely mum yourself ❤️

Yes, I had to sweep the stairs down with a dustpan and brush, and I remember hanging the rugs over the washing line in the back garden to give them a good beating. If Mum washed blankets in the bath we were allowed to get in and tread them, like grapes! Later, as a teenager, I'd be asked to scrub down the wooden draining boards either side of the kitchen sink with Vim powder.

We used to hold reams(?) of wool in our hands and stretch it out as our mum rolled it into a ball for knitting.