Hello, Rod and others who may be interested. I would assume that "mangling" simply meant feeding wet, freshly washed clothes etc through a hand-operated mangle, though it usually makes up just one part of a laundress' or washerwoman's occupation. Perhaps Mrs Elliott worked as part of a team - with a daughter perhaps - and took the items from the other woman as they were passed across from the tub or copper after washing. Perhaps there was even another woman to carry them to the line after they were mangled... but that idea seems to fail if no one witnessed Mrs Elliott's death. It could be that whoever noted that she seemed well on the previous evening was working with her, and went away leaving a pile of clean wet clothes still to be mangled. Intriguing case! Phoebe