51/65

This is a side stretcher (the horizontal support which connects the legs of a chair) for a wheel back chair, the most common type of Windsor chair, and is made of beech. It was made by Samuel Rockall, of Turville Heath, a bodger in the Chiltern beech woods. Rather than using a pole lathe, he used a treadle lathe with a fly-wheel to turn the legs. The legs he made were usually sold to a chair maker in High Wycombe. (See 51/67, 51/69, 51/71, 51/73)

1 side stretcher; wood (beech); good condition

Citation in publication [H. J. Massingham, 'Country Relics' (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1939)] –'Hanging up under the thatch of the Hermitage is a row of nine chair legs, spindles and stretchers, each one of different size, shape and design in the turning, but one and all made of beech-wood, fresh and clean as a new pin and the work of a single living man...The wheel-back side stretcher differs from the middle one in the shifting of the expanded centre towards one of the ends.' (pp. 52) [see also pp 56-57], (51/65, 51/67, 51/69, 51/72, 51/73). These chair legs [and stretchers] were made by Mr. Samuel Rockall, of Turville Heath, a bodger of the Chiltern beech woods. He represents one of the very few bodgers now at work, although at one time this work was common, particularly in the Chilterns. He used a treadle lathe with a fly-wheel, instead of the older pole lather, to turn the legs. He first of all felled the beech trees for them, and after they had been left for seasoning he sawed them into logs, then cleft them by hand. He shaved them roughly with a draw knife, and then turned them on the lathe with patterns of rings and swellings. The legs he made were usually sold to a chair-maker in High Wycombe., MERL list / description [Massingham Collection, October 1989] – 'ACC. NO.: 51/65 // NAME: CHAIR SPINDLE // NEG NO.: 35/1939 // STORAGE: '

Turville Heath

1930-01-01 - 1939-12-31

1930s