Old hook

[TheStoryOfAHouse]

Hi everyone , our first post on the forum & hoping someone may have ideas on dates for this hook that successfully survived the extensions over the years of our cottage.

We have bought a ‘house’ called a cottage ….originally a workers hovel one up / one down, extended 3 time periods - 1800s / 1959/2006 - we were told hovel was extended in 1830s to add two rooms up and down and then it became known as ‘new house’ . This original ground floor only room is now a kitchen and the room above - an en-suite.
This room above has huge elm boards I believe they are 12-14 inches wide .

Does anyone know anything about this hook? Luckily survived the 1830 modernisation when laths were nailed over these beams and plastered in lime. They simply folded it up in the void !

Same with the bedrooms - in the small loft space the purlin beams are 1/4 tree trunks lime-washed .

We believe with the bedroom ceilings, they originally plastered the back of the thatched roof with something and that & rafters were covered with some sort of limewash - then in Victorian times the thatched roof was replaced with slate - & lower bedroom ceilings installed (laths on lime plaster and rafters to hold them) think their idea was to bring ceilings down closer so the room wasn’t cold.

The house has been extended by 1841 OS map with the hovel area a distinct room. Incidentally all our rooms in the house are 9/10 inch thick as they were all originally exterior and as every generation extended these walls became internal ! We have a deep well too yet to find if it’s a ground water or aquifer well. We don’t have ANY old deeds - my only hope is to write to the lord of the manor as they still occupy the nearby hall and hope they may have a copy of the deeds and any info in their archives.

But any ideas anyone ? Also see the nails under the hook - we have a few around the house and wondered if they are date specific ?

 

[Cubist]

Hi there, you don't say how bing the hook is so I'm guessing about 3-4 inches across the back/top edge. Judging by the apparent location on a bressummer above a fireplace I would suggest that the hook would have been used to suspend pots or meats by a chain - that could be lengthened or shortened - above a fire for cooking.

May be an idea to search the local parish records for references to the property. These can be very helpful, and probably more so than the Lord of the Manor.

 

[TheStoryOfAHouse]

This isn’t a fireplace - sorry the photo does look like it’s an inglenook now I look at it ! It’s actually a bare brick kitchen wall which at one time did have an external chimney . Thus hook is on the second floor beam away from that wall , beams spaced at 17 inches so around 3ft away from the chimney.

Wondering if it was used when the original workers cottage only ground floor room became the kitchen. . Interesting that it was saved by being folded up into the ceiling when they lath and plastered the ceilings when they extended the house 1830 ish - so I do know it existed before then.

The hook is around 3 inches long and the plate at the top is 2 inches wide .

 

[Gothichome]

Both the nail and the hook are hand forged, located away from the wall I would suggest it’s just a utility hook for any thing you wanted to keep off the floor.

 

[Cubist]

Thinking again, it looks rather like a bale hook used to pick up and carry tied bundles of crops like wheat, barley, straw, reed, almost anything in fact. Perhaps later adapted with the addition of the fixing bracket for use drying or airing damp clothing - or the cottage dwellers baccy leaves?

 

[CliffordPope]

hay bale hook - Google Search

One thing all these examples have in common, unlike the OP's hook, is a point on the end.

 

[Kearn]

Well, the lack of pointy end is interesting. But not as much as the effort involved in allowing the hook to rotate on it’s fixing plate. But for what purpose…

 

[CliffordPope]

I think it's a lashing hook, for pulling or hanging something from. The hook saves the bother of fiddling the rope through an eye, and the swivel means the hook always points in the direction of the pull so the rope or chain perhaps is less likely to jump off.

I can imagine something like that being useful for dragging something across the floor and swinging over a trap door.

 

[Cubist]

I would have expected a hook intended to be tied to a rope would use a round eye. To me, the roughly triangular slot suggests either belt/strap/harness hung or hand held usage. Also, forge welded iron can be rather brittle so perhaps losing the sharp bit is not so surprising.

 

[Kearn]

@CliffordPope I’d agree that the hook is excessively big, if just for hanging, almost more than a full semi circle in section, so I can see it holding a rope, although I can’t quite envisage the usage especially with the load on the relatively flimsy bracket if the pull was lateral… the surface wear would also corroborate the rubbing smooth. I can also see the belt option at the top @Cubist assuming the retaining brackets are later, if overkill just to hold a previous hook to a wall. However, I can’t make out any smooth surface polishing on the flat of the triangle end which I would expect to see too…?

 

[Cubist]

@CliffordPope I’d agree that the hook is excessively big, if just for hanging, almost more than a full semi circle in section, so I can see it holding a rope, although I can’t quite envisage the usage especially with the load on the relatively flimsy bracket if the pull was lateral… the surface wear would also corroborate the rubbing smooth. I can also see the belt option at the top @Cubist assuming the retaining brackets are later, if overkill just to hold a previous hook to a wall. However, I can’t make out any smooth surface polishing on the flat of the triangle end which I would expect to see too…?

I suspect that this object may have found, or been pressed, into many uses in its lifetime. The pattern of wear in the belly of the hook could therefore be caused by almost anything we might imagine. On the other hand, the use of the fixing bracket to fasten it to the beam, or any other wall, makes sense as any other fixing type would cause the body of the hook to wander, just as it would if a rope were passed through it. I suspect too that it would be impossible to ascribe the cause of any wear to the 'handle/stirrup'(?), as that is currently hidden by the bracket itself, to frequent human handling or abrasion with the brackets 'hinge barrel' or perhaps any other material.

I guess we'llll never know for sure, but it's fun to reflect on these old bits and pieces and wonder about them.

Hmm, I wonder if that also explains the puzzled looks I get from my grand-daughter?

 

[CliffordPope]

Here's a modern version:

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[Cubist]

Ahhh, I see what you mean now Clifford. 'Lashing' as in tying down the cover of a cargo hold on a boat of perhaps a trailer. The 'swinging over a trap door' had me going in a much more..... 'corporal' direction.