Blacksmith's Bill

A curio amongst the papers, its survival is probaby mere chance and we do not know how typical it was, although the large quantity of nails and other fastenings suggests that some improvements were being undertaken. Nor can we be sure whether it relates to one of the farms or both those at Ashford and Bigbury. It is a reminder of a world now gone and a technology almost lost to us. Many of the items referred to may well be local in form as well as the terms used for them; I have attempted to identify some in footnotes but an early nineteenth-century husbandry manual would doubtless add a good deal.

Mr Hingstone Dr to J Luckraft
1841			s	d
July 17	2 pins & chains		0 -	7
26	made rods for a bed 2 stapels & a hasp		0 -	8
31	½ L of nails & 2 stapels		0 -	7
August 10	a hook 2 eyes qr L of nails		1 -	1½
13	a haps 2 stapels ½ L of nails		0 -	9
16	2 brace eyes ½ L of nails ironwork for a snead		2 -	5
17	2 eyes a stapel ½ L of nails		1 -	4
18	a haps 3 stapels ½ L of nails		0 -	9
20	repair 2 chains		0 -	7
23	mend a tea kittel fountin & ladel ironwork for a snead		1 -	7
29	steel a bidex 2 neraways		1 -	2
30	mend a pan qr of nails		0 -	7
31	6 spicks ½ L of nails & a barker		1 -	1
September 3	a haps & 2 stapels		0 -	4
6	4 pigsprings Sharpe 3 wages mend a hams		1 -	0
13	½ Lof nails		0 -	5
22	a bolt & lince haps 2 stapels qr Lof nails		0 -	10½
24	repair a pair hamses a haps 2 stapels ½ L of nails		1 -	4
25	cogs & linces for a pound		0 -	6
28	½ L of nails 6 rivets		0 -	6
October 5	repair a net of a pound		1 -	4
6	3 bars for a cornwipper		3 -	8
7	½ L of nails		0 -	4
8	a pair scuts [] of holy		0 -	6
11	mend a bolt & crook & 16 spicks		1 -	0
15	a new bidex & Steel a bidex		2 -	4
18	¾ L of nails & whoop a gag		1 -	0
21	100 of nails & 20 Spicks		1 -	4
22	300 ½ of nails & a Stapel		2 -	8
23	qr L of nails scute & nail a pair of Shoes		0 -	6
30	4 pigsprings qr L of nails		0 -	6
November 3	4 crimps a Stapel ½ L of nails		1 -	6
6	2 Stapels qr of nails		0 -	4
9	a horscome 3 wipper Stapels ½ L of nails		1 -	6
15	Sharp a bidex & 2 Stapels		0 -	4
18	2 gates eyes 2 Stapels		1 -	0
20	a paddel shovel ½ L of nails		0 -	10
23	a pigspring 2 stapels foot to divit		0 -	9
December 1	½ L of nails		0 -	5
8	mend a chain qr L of nails mend a hams		1 -	0
13	a new grate shovel		3 -	0
15	2 hooks		0 -	4
22	mend a bittel ring sharp 4 wages mend a cover		0 -	8
1842
January 3	point wing to shear sharp a cutter qr L of nails		2 -	9
	Half year shoeing 6 horses	£1-	4 -	0
		3-	11 -	9
	a new turnip knife		1 -	8
	settled John Luckraft	3-	13 -	5

barker - 'one who strips bark' [OED] hence possibly a tool for stripping bark from cut timber and poles

bidax(e) - West country dialect variant of beat-axe. 'Where a man of York or Kent would employ a shovel or a spade, a Cornishman uses a bidaxe' (1806 R Polwhele - History of Cornwall). From to beat, 'to slice off the rough sod from uncultivated or fallow ground in order to burn it'. [OED]

bolt - probably a fastening, but has an additional meaning of a flour-sieve [OED]

cog - a word with a multiplicity of meanings but including 'one of the short handles of the pole of a scythe' (dialect) [OED]

hame - 'each of two curved pieces of wood or metal placed over, fastened to, or forming, the collar of a draught horse' [OED]

haps - 'obsolete form of hasp' {OED] Probably in the primary meaning of a metal clasp.

hasp - also 'an instrument for cutting the surface of grass-land, a scarifier' [OED, from Webster]

scutch - 'one of the pieces of wood which in a thrashing mill beats out the grain' [OED]

steel - to overlay, point or edge with steel; to sharpen (a knife) with the steel [OED]

whip - 'to bind about' [OED]. The OED does not have cornwipper, but it is presumably a corn-binder. US readers should note that corn in England was usually wheat (or oats, barley, rye, etc) never maize ('Indian corn')!

Blacksmith's Bill 1841-42