51/20

Twisters were used for making straw or hay rope used in thatching. Usually, two people were needed to make the rope: one person to feed in the straw or hay, and the other to hold the twister and walk backwards away from the feeder. This twister has two handles: one to hold, and another to turn. The hook at one end is for the straw or hay. Twisters were also known as 'twiners', 'throw-cranks' or 'whimbles'.

1 straw rope twister: metal; wood; fair condition

Citation in publication [H. J. Massingham, 'Country Relics' (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1939)] - '...with the haybond-twister he had made many a straw-bond for his thatching...I have another of these haybond-twisters, with the intials S.H carved upon it, which is at least 100 years older that the one Mr Tipping gave me, and came from a county (Gloucestershire) which he has never seen. Yet in structure and shape the two are identical. That makes me think that Andrew Marvell's poem, Ametas and Thestylis Making Hay-Ropes, is concerned with just such a haybond-twister. The lines: Think'st thou that this Rope would twine // If we both should turn one way? // Where both parties so combine, // Neither Love will twist nor hay. // suggest the normal position assuumed by two persons twisting haybonds, namely, facing one another, one turning the handle and the other holding the truss in the hook. Haybond-twisters were used for thatching and hay-trussing, not for making strawbonds in the harvest field. Names for thatching tools are very local and so variable, and another thatcher who lived ten miles away from Mr Tipping's village called the haybond-twister a "wimble"...A single twist is adequate for rick-thatching, adroitly made to keep the fibres intact. The main object is to keep the weather out. ' (pp. 4, 7), MERL 'Catalogue index' card – ‘TWISTER [‘(Straw Rope Twister) (Straw rope)’ Scored through]// DATE ACQUIRED: January, 1951 // GROUP: CRAFTS - STRAW- ROPE // NEGATIVE: 35/16 // PERIOD: Before 1860 // PLACE OF ORIGIN: The H. J. Massingham Collection // NUMBER: 51/20M // DESCRIPTION: This straw rope twister originally belonged to the man who farmed Manor Farm at Sevenhampton (Glos.) [Gloucestershire]. Mr Massingham estimates its age at nearer 200 years, but there is no direct evidence of this. // Twisters were used for making rope of straw and sometimes hay, for use in thatching or for tying up trusses of hay or straw. Sometimes shorter ropes were made by hand and longer ones with the twister. It was normally a job for two people, one feeding the material and the other turning the twister and walking backwards away from the feeder. Twisters were known by various names, among them, TWINERS, THROW-CRANKS, and WHIMBLES. // This twister is crank shaped with two wooden handles, one for holding and the other for turning. There is a hook at the end for the straw or hay. It is 13 1/2" long and has the letters S.H. branded on each handle. // See also 51/21', MERL list / description [Massingham Collection, October 1989] – 'ACC. NO.: 51/20 // NAME: STRAW ROPE TWISTER // NEG NO.: 35/16 // STORAGE: '

1860

Wood, Metal