In our house (believed to be late 18th century) a number of the original door lintels were marked with cast iron markers made up of a letter and number. Each digit is on the head of a spike driven into the wood. The one pictured (L7) was on a wooden lintel on a downstairs doorway leading to an attached outhouse which was at one time a smithy. The lintel was removed during some renovation work (under building regs scrutiny otherwise it would have remained in place) and has been made into a garden bench. I had a fancy that it related to some kind of taxation or rateable value system similar to window tax and based on the number of rooms in the property by which L7 may refer to lower floor room 7. Can anyone shed any light on these marks?
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LINTEL MARKERS
- Thread starter Breamer
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Penners
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I have absolutely no idea what these markers are. I've never heard of any kind of taxation or rating system such as you describe (but that's not to say one didn't exist at some time).
Other than that, my only musing is that perhaps the blacksmith was making these markers for some completely unrelated purpose, and decided to add a couple to his house as little mementos of his work! Maybe he even thought, "Ha-ha... that'll puzzle some b*gger a couple o' hundred years from now!"
Other than that, my only musing is that perhaps the blacksmith was making these markers for some completely unrelated purpose, and decided to add a couple to his house as little mementos of his work! Maybe he even thought, "Ha-ha... that'll puzzle some b*gger a couple o' hundred years from now!"
Keith Bowman
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Sorry to rain on anyone's picnic but those markers look to me exactly like the markers placed on railway sleepers by the gangers.....
Penners
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Well done, Keith. That must be the explanation - it's a re-used sleeper.
Flyfisher
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I've never seen a railway sleeper that I'd want inside my house as they've always been oily, tarry, creosote-sodden things - great for a long life in garden landscaping, but not so good for indoor use.
Perhaps old railway sleepers were not treated in this way?
Perhaps old railway sleepers were not treated in this way?
Keith Bowman
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Flyfisher said:I've never seen a railway sleeper that I'd want inside my house as they've always been oily, tarry, creosote-sodden things - great for a long life in garden landscaping, but not so good for indoor use.
Perhaps old railway sleepers were not treated in this way?
I doubt if it pays to enquire too deeply what has been applied to railway sleepers!
Going back to the original query, I suppose it is possible that similar numbers on spikes could have been available from ironmongers and used for other purposes besides railway sleepers. A more modern (=cheaper) version seems to be used on some electricity supply poles.
formerly known as
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the barn at my 'previous previous' house included some old sleepers in its construction ................ they were nothing like the regular sized sleepers that we see today - they must have been pre diesel as they were relatively clean.