Makers at Work Display

This is a skeining machine for cleaving rods of willow into three or four to make skeins, and for shaving the skeins to reduce their thickness in preparation for weaving. Skeinwork is a German speciality and the machine was made in Berlin. It is driven by a flywheel and a system of rollers.

This is a basketwork fire hose strainer with a canvas skirt. It was donated to the MERL from the Royal Berkshire Fire and Rescue Service and was probably used in fire stations in Reading until it was taken out of use c. 2000–2003.

Fire strainers were placed on the end of the hose of a fire engine to strain the water, which was often taken from a nearby pond and therefore contained debris. They were often moved from one pumping appliance to another. This example consists of a cylindrical basket made of buff willow.

A shaving horse is a bench on which the workman sits astride. This shaving horse was used by a cooper to hold the staves of a cask as he shaped them. It came from the cooper’s shop at H. & G. Simonds Ltd., known as the Bridge Street Brewery, in Reading.

Truss hoops, made of ash, were used by wet coopers to bring the staves of a cask together. The cask is first moistened and pressed over a cresset (a brazier used by coopers) until the sap has warmed and the staves become pliable. The cooper then drives down progressively smaller truss hoops over the staves, using a heavy hammer, until they are brought together. This truss hoop was used in the cooper’s shop at H. & G. Simonds Ltd., known as the Bridge Street Brewery, in Reading.

This is a thatcher’s reed comber, for combing the wheat reed which is used to create thatched roofs. It consists of a solid wooden frame with four splayed legs and cross bars, and sitting on the frame is a solid piece of timber with 22 steel spikes set into it.