December 01, 2006

Museum of English Rural Life Some decent text about and old pictures of rural industries like bodging and charcoal burning, country people, landscapes, and buildings and plenty more.

The interface is a bit clunky, but worth the look around.

  • A bit more about bodgers. ... they're bigger than badgers!
  • Bodger bodger bodger. Nice title, AC! I found some interesting stuff on coracles, which are clearly related to barnacles.
  • Bodgers were highly skilled itinerant wood-turners, who worked in the beech woods on the chalk hills of the Chilterns. They cut timber and converted it into chair legs by turning it on a pole lathe, an ancient and very simple tool that uses the spring of a bent sapling to help run it. Their equipment was so easy to move and set up that it was easier to go to the timber and work it there than to transport it to a workshop. Fascinating that chairs only require a bit of polymer these days and trees are in such short supply. *leans back on two legs*
  • *pokes pete with 12-foot bodgepole*
  • Wonky interface indeed, but I liked the two geezers sitting inside the fireplace at the pub.
  • well it certainly is warmer in there, innit?
  • Loverly photos, Abie! I wish they had done more rural photos, and some on traditional occupations like harness makers and wainwrights, as well as plowmen and tinkers. two geezers sitting inside the fireplace at the pub *thinks she could enjoy geezing on a cold winter's day
  • I really liked that shot of the guy broadcast sowing in Westmorland that's at the 'people' link in the post.