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This is a deadfall mouse trap, designed to kill mice, and other vermin, by crushing them with the fall of a heavy weight. It is a lever arm trap, rather than a string release type. Deadfall traps were in common use before the development of the spring jaw trap. Bait is placed inside the box and as the animal treads on it, the trip toggle is relesead and the block comes down with force.

1 mouse trap: wood; string; good conditionConsists of (a) The square BOX with a scaffold or gallows of two uprights - the GUIDES - projecting from it, the two being connected by a cross bar at the top. (b) A rectangular wooden block running on the guides which passes through a pair of holes bored vertically through it. This block has its foot in the wooden box. (c) The TREADLE - in the shape of a spatula is placed across the floor of the basal trough. One end of the treadle, which is a lever arm, passes through the side of the base. (d) A piece of string is tied to the top of the block, threaded through the cross bar and ends in a TRIP TOGGLE, a flat piece of wood which, when the trap is set, is wedged between the trip treadle and a notch cut in the side of the base. To set the trap the length of trip string is adjusted and the fall block raised to the cross bar of the scaffold, while one end of the trip toggle is fitted in the notch at the outer end of the treadle and the other in the notch on the side of the box. Bait is put inside the box on the treadle, and as the animal steps on it the trip toggle is released and the block comes down with some force on the mouse.

MERL 'Catalogue index' card – 'Before being superseded by the spring jaw trap the dead fall trap for catching all kinds of vermin was used throughout England. The principle involved in its working is the vertical fall of a heavy weight intended to crush and kill the animal. This type, the lever arm trap is more frequently found than the string release type designed to catch rats. // It consists of (a) The square BOX with a scaffold or gallows of two uprights – the GUIDES projecting from it, the two being connected by a cross bar at the top. (b) A rectangular wooden block running on the guides which pass through a pair of holes bored vertically through it. This block has its foot in the wooden box. (c) The TREADLE – in the shape of a spatula is placed across the floor of the basal trough. One end of the treadle which is a lever arm, passes through this side of the base. (d) A piece of string is tied to the top of the block, threaded through the cross bar and ends in a TRIP TOGGLE, a flat piece of wood, which, when the trap is set is wedge between the trip treadle and a notch cut in the side of the base. // To set the trap the length of the trip string is adjusted, the fall block raised to the cross bar of the scaffold, while one end of the trip toggle is fitted in the notch at the outer end of the treadle and the other in the notch on the side of the Box. Bait is put inside the box on the treadle, and as the animal steps on it the trip toggle is released and the block comes down with some force on the mouse. // … // Hornell, Jas., ‘Old English Deadfall Mouse Traps’ Antiquity Dec. 1940 pp 395–404. // Jobson, A. ‘North East Suffolk’ 1948 p. 91.', No Lavinia Smith No. recorded.

Rippon, Miss Dorothy May Lyddon (Agent)