What is this?

[DaveBrigg]

As well as the 'daisy' sign on the ceiling mentioned last month, which seems to have a good luck / anti-witchcraft significance, there are two more items discovered during renovations that I'd be interested to learn people's opinions of. They were found in an alcove in the side of an inglenook fireplace, which may once have led to an upstairs warming cupboard. (I can get my arm in the passage, which is quite narrow and curves behind the fireplace, but can't feel a back wall). The fireplace is possibly Elizabethan, or a little earlier.

The first object is made of a coursely woven wool cloth containing horse hair. It has a cotton or linen band along one edge about 30 cm long, but has suffered quite badly. My first guess would be some sort of bonnet, unless it is the remains of a much larger garment.

More puzzling is the second item. It has a stick, roughly pencil sized, which has had the bark whittled off with a knife and a notch cut around the top. Tied on with twine is what could be a thin leather strip, although it is too dry to know the material for sure. I can't think of any practical use for it. Has anyone come across anything similar?

 

[Gareth Hughes]

Looks like a whip or a riding crop? Kinky evil spirits :twisted:

Please, please, report the find to your county archaeologist and the concealed garments project.
http://www.concealedgarments.org/text/information/advice.html

 

[biffvernon]

Grimsdale and Brunhilde would know.

 

[andrew gayton]

looks like an old apple corer??

 

[Penners]

Not sure about the stick thing, but the heptagonal item beside it looks like an old coin - possibly what was once known as a "twenty-pee".

Several generations ago, this coin would have had sufficient value to buy any number of things. Nowadays of course it's virtually worthless, except as a curio.

 

[Fizzer]

Not sure about the stick thing, but the heptagonal item beside it looks like an old coin - possibly what was once known as a "twenty-pee".

Several generations ago, this coin would have had sufficient value to buy any number of things. Nowadays of course it's virtually worthless, except as a curio.

hee hee :lol:

 

[DaveBrigg]

Oi, that's my pay rise you're talking about.

If it is a miniature riding crop, it might have belonged to the Lincoln Imp. I'll pass on the details Gareth, and see if they can add anything.

 

[Gareth Hughes]

Oi, that's my pay rise you're talking about.

If it is a miniature riding crop, it might have belonged to the Lincoln Imp. I'll pass on the details Gareth, and see if they can add anything.

Going back to your earlier thread about the other things you've found in your house makes me wonder where you are geographically as it seems to be a pretty wide range of building charms.

If previous owners didn't have much luck, leading them to squirrel all these pre Feng Shui objects away, at least you've had the fortune to find them all again.

 

[Penners]

Having looked again, I reckon it's the remains of an ancient Japanese Samurai wooden practice sword. Are you anywhere near Tokyo?

I promise I will now stop being flippant.

 

[DaveBrigg]

Gareth, we are about 20 miles north of Lincoln. The house is directly opposite a Norman church, and there is a good chance that one wall dates from the same period. I thought that living so close to a church would offer some protection in itself, but thinking again, I suppose it may be off-putting to know that your nearest neighbours are all six feet under. There was also the bottom half of a bottle found in a wall, but it doesn't look much like the witches bottles on the site you recommended.
I suspect that there were a lot more objects hidden in old houses, but many were found years ago or are so much part of the fabric that they are unlikely to be discovered.

As for building charms - this one lost some of its charm when a dead rat landed on me as the kitchen plasterboard came down.

 

[charlie-ia]

one bloke says "look at my home made strap wrench"
the other bloke said "well, i take my hat off to you"

 

[Jill]

You can't be that far from us. We're in Kirton-Lindsey which is North of Lincoln and our church is norman, you're not round the corner from us are you?

 

[DaveBrigg]

A builder has just suggested that the stick is actually a marker peg for building or rendering. It would have been one of a pair, with string between. The 'ribbon' could be to help to pull it out of hardened mortar, or possibly to make it easier to see from a distance. If this is true then judging from the shape of some of the walls the peg must have got lost early on in the build, and they managed the rest with just the one.

Hi Jill. We're just across the A15 from you, in North Kelsey. Biff Vernon is also in Lincs, so that makes at least three of us! I don't know Kirton very well, although I've been past a few times recently on the way to the reclamation yard in Blyton. Are you working on a project at the moment.

Penners - 'coins' - 'flippant'... very funny

 

[charlie-ia]

is the dying gladiator still going in Brigg? had my first ever pint there. larger and lime. was disgusting. drinking beamish today. oh happy memories...

 

[DaveBrigg]

Yep, the Dying Glad is still there, though I try to avoid drinking in Brigg because of the chances of meeting pupils when one or the other of us has had a few. Can't argue with your comments about Beamish.

 

[Jill]

Hi Dave, your not that far away then. I wouldn't really say we are working on a project at the moment, but we should be. We bought the cottage attatched to ours 2 years ago, knocked through to make it one property 18 months ago and I'm sat here looking at the acro props supporting the ceiling. They looked quite effective with tinsel on at Xmas. We are doing odd bits that we can do without much cost before we submit plans, once I've stopped changing my mind on what I want. We've got deeds going back to 1735 and we believe it was one property originally, then split into 2 at some point.