51/178

Nothing is known of the origins of this slat rule, although it belonged to a Cotswold stone slatter. It was used for measuring the length of slats according to the position they would occupy on the roof. The nail in the top of the rule was placed in the hole of the slat and the measurement taken to the bottom of the slat. Each vertical mark indicates the length of the stone in a particular course or line of slats. The slanting marks show the kind of slat. The rule is marked on two sides, with one side showing measurements of different courses of slats, and the other the length of the battens to which the slats are pegged. A notch is cut parallel to the nail on the side of the rule.

1 slat rule: wood and metal; good condition

Citation in publication [H. J. Massingham, 'Country Relics' (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1939)] –' The tools for quarrying and slatting roof stone are few and, with one exception, extremely simple. They consist of a dressing-iron, a slat-pick or pittaway (the latter name is now obsolete), a slatting-hammer, a fromard and a slat-rule. Of these, by far the most important is the slat-rule, with young slatters of to-day have had to abandon for the 2 ft. rule, so delicate and complicated a science is its effective use. I have two of them, and for good reason that every slat-rule differs slightly in its marks of measurement from every other. No slatter obeys standardized rules; he is guided by the materials to his hand, which he has received from the quarry, and by the slat-rule, which he has made himself to interpret the various sizes of the slats. A nail is fixed at the top to insert into the peg-hole of the slat. The rule is used both at the quarry and on the roof, and, when required for measuring slats not yet holed, it is applied to the head of the slat.' (p. 18), MERL list / description [Massingham Collection, October 1989] – 'ACC. NO.: 51/178 // NAME: SLAT RULE // NEG NO.: 35/137 // STORAGE: '

Wood, Metal