Ok, start off with an idyllic fireplace.... (click images for larger version)
and then spend half a day with a hammer....
End up with a nice stone wall (poor quality rock but that is what is available locally) but with an interesting lintel holding the chimney up.
What you are looking at is the rock being supported by two old mining hand drills with a modern brick + cement support badly built underneath it. Sorry the pic doesn't show this very well. The drills are 30mm diameter and 800mm long. Here is a slightly fuzzy picture of the tip.
My neighbour (and local expert on almost everything....) states that as it has a square end (opposite end to the tip) then this means it is the more modern version of hand drills which were turned by ratchet rather than directly by hand.
Does anybody else have any more knowledge than this? or any good links for details on mining equipment? I had original assumed that the house was built for a farm labourer in the 1860s but this find suggests that a local minor was more likely. (There is a lot of mining history in the village.)
Oh and true to form compared to inwoods fireplace thread, the drills are supported by the barest minimum at either end. I want to remove the modern bricks but don't dare until I find a way of supporting it better.
and then spend half a day with a hammer....
End up with a nice stone wall (poor quality rock but that is what is available locally) but with an interesting lintel holding the chimney up.
What you are looking at is the rock being supported by two old mining hand drills with a modern brick + cement support badly built underneath it. Sorry the pic doesn't show this very well. The drills are 30mm diameter and 800mm long. Here is a slightly fuzzy picture of the tip.
My neighbour (and local expert on almost everything....) states that as it has a square end (opposite end to the tip) then this means it is the more modern version of hand drills which were turned by ratchet rather than directly by hand.
Does anybody else have any more knowledge than this? or any good links for details on mining equipment? I had original assumed that the house was built for a farm labourer in the 1860s but this find suggests that a local minor was more likely. (There is a lot of mining history in the village.)
Oh and true to form compared to inwoods fireplace thread, the drills are supported by the barest minimum at either end. I want to remove the modern bricks but don't dare until I find a way of supporting it better.