Town rallies around mother told not to hang her washing out by launching ‘laundry revolution’
I love the rural quirkiness of this story. There is a serious undertow to this however. The local traders whose attitudes provoked the whole thing are typical of the kind of negative backdrop to any form of individual expression in any number of small towns across rural England.
It was once the epicentre of the fight against the Catholic monarch James II, earning a reputation as “the most rebellious town in Devon” after its men volunteered in droves to follow the Duke of Monmouth.
Now the winds of dissent are once more blowing through Colyton, but this time over the delicate matter of underwear.
Where once the struggle was over the question of religion and who could lay rightful claim to the throne, today’s uprising turns on a woman’s right to hang her smalls out in public.
It began when Claire Mountjoy, a mother of three, received an email from local traders instructing her not to hang her washing out to dry for fear it would lower the tone of the neighbourhood.
In response hundreds of fellow residents have taken to displaying bras, nighties, pants and other items of laundry outside their homes in a show of solidarity with Ms Mountjoy.