The Mixmaster sounds cute and kitsch now, but in the 1950s the device was as modern as a plasma TV is today. Like dishwashers, built in wardrobes, exhaust fans and other electrical appliances that showed their face during the fifties, it offered housewives a revolutionary new lifestyle low on elbow grease. Exhaust fans kept streamlined kitchens sparkling new, modern wardrobes meant no more hoovering in fiddly corners, while dishwashers washed everything from the ‘marble cake’ tin to the blades of the mix master… well almost.

These days we take many mass produced items for granted but when they first appeared in Rose’s house they were still out of reach of most local homemakers. A woman may have dreamt of her modern ‘time-saving’ kitchen, but these ‘space age’ appliances and settings were well beyond the pay packets of most.