Wiktionary
n. (context now chiefly historical English) A field where cloth or clothing is laid out to be bleached by the sun or water.
Wikipedia
A bleachfield or croft was an open area of land (usually a field) used for spreading cloth and fabrics on the ground to be bleached by the action of the sun and water. They were usually found in and around mill towns in Great Britain and were an integral part of textile manufacture during the Industrial Revolution.
In the 18th century there were many linen bleachfields in Scotland, particularly in Perthshire, Renfrewshire in the Scottish Lowlands, and the outskirts of Glasgow. Linen manufacture became by the 1760s a major industry in Scotland, second only to agriculture. For instance in 1782 alone, Perthshire produced 1.7 million yards of linen worth £81,000 (£ as of ).
Bleachfields were also common in northern England; for instance, the name of the town of Whitefield is thought to derive from the medieval bleachfields used by Flemish settlers.
Bleachfields became redundant shortly after the discovery of chlorine in the late 18th century: however, many of the factories bleaching with chlorine continued to be called bleachfields.
A bleachfield is similar to, but should not be confused with a tenterground.
Usage examples of "bleachfield".
She moved to Bleachfield, Arizona, where her brother, Nathan, was a preacher.
There had been storms for weeks, winds and rains with a ferocity few could remember in that part of the state, and a lot of the people - especially the older folks - who lived out of town were finding it tough to get into Bleachfield for worship on a Sunday.
For some time he acted as clerk in connexion with a bleachfield at Roslin, and subsequently held a situation in the Commercial Bank in Edinburgh.