Vintage cotton bedspreads

Well you won't want to use them looking a bit grubby, why not take a risk and give them a 30degree wash. If they are too big and heavy to go in your drier you could use a drier in a laundrette (if you have one locally).

I would take them to a professional dry cleaners. They would advise whether dry cleaning or washing would be best.

I don't think I'd put them in a drier.

I’d take them to the laundrette and put them in one of the very big machines then through the dryer or ask the lady to do a service wash.

Perhaps the dry cleaner would be less hassle.!

Reputable laundry but one at a time just in case of spoiling.

Would you think about dyeing them at all?
I wouldn't be confident to do it as my ideas are often poles apart from the actual result.

I would hand wash them I'm afraid. In the summer when the weather is good.

Are they the waffle type woven into patterns? I have two like that and wash them with bio detergent in the machine.
They line dry in the summer.

If they are grey but supposed to be white, it could be because they've been washed previously but not rinsed properly. My MIL passed on some old bath mats to us when we married - they were grey and white and quite stiff (washed in her old twin tub). I washed them in the automatic without any soap powder and they came up white again.

I'd put them on a 40℃ cotton wash (without detergent or fabric softener) and max spin speed.

Oops - they were grey and BLUE, were originally white and blue.

Many of the old bedspreads were waffle, very commonly in use those days, 40s+. No-one could be fussy about washing these heavy items those days and they would have been too big for a dolly tub or twin tub, they would likely have gone through a mangle after maybe one small rinse.

Weigh each one if you can ie bathroom scales when carrying. One would certainly fit in my machine and would get a relatively gentle wash as most machines have gentle drums. Just weigh and then check if its the right weight for your machine. I would use a delicate cycle with a wool wash liquid with an extra rinse and later an additional fast spin.

Thank you everyone for your suggestions. I shall post the results!

If valuable I'd sell them on ebay or flog them to a local antique dealer.