Object number
92/27
Collection
Creator
Description
A hoe, for digging weeds and loosening earth. The metal head has an oval-shaped fixing for the wooden handle. It is marked 'Elwell England // 2884' and is described in the Elwell catalogue as an 'axe-eyed potato hoe'. The mattock is part of the Rumble Collection.
Physical description
1 mattock: wood; metal; good condition- as new
Label Text
<DIV STYLE="text-align:Justify;font-family:Georgia;font-style:normal;font-weight:normal;font-size:16;color:#000000;"><P><SPAN><SPAN>8. <B>Potato Hoe</B><P> This tool is more like a mattock than a hoe, and was designed for weeding and loosening the soil around potato plants. It is described as 'axe eye' because of the shape of the forging to take the axe-like handle. It was made at Elwell's edge tool forge at Wednesbury, Staffordshire. This firm was started by Edward and Alfred Elwell in the early years of the nineteenth century, and in the 1870s was equipped with a new water and steam powered works that employed 200 men and produced up to 70,000 dozen tools annually, many for the export trade (see <I>The Implement and Machinery Review</I>, December 1st, 1888, pp 11267-9).<P> 92/27</SPAN></SPAN></P></DIV>
Archival history
MERL miscellaneous note, Greta Bertram, 25 October 2013 – The objects 92/2–92/68 are part of the Rumble Collection, and were donated to the Museum by Mr Rumble in July 1991. The objects were collected or purchased by Mr Rumble or his father, and most of them came from either Camberley, in Surrey, or Somerset, where Mr Rumble had previously lived. He kept his collection in the shed at the bottom of his garden in Woodley, Berkshire., MERL 'Handwritten accession' form (Institute of Agricultural History) – 'Recorder: JMB // Date: 9.9.92 // Description: Hoe with oval shaped fixing for handle. // Inscription: ELWELL ENGLAND // 2884 // Dimensions: Length of handle: 121 cm // Length of Blade: 19.0 cm Width of blade 15.5 cm // Associated information: Part of a collection of tools purchased or collected by Mr Rumble or his father. // According to the ELWELL catalogue this is an “AXE EYED POTATOE [sic] HOE” // References: TR MRL P2/B44 p75.’
Production place
Wednesbury
Object name
Material
Associated subject
External document
- L:\MERL\Objects\JISC 2012\60 series negatives\60_16139.tif - High resolution image
