Today, I (literally) stumbled across another ‘find’.
Unless I am grievously mistaken, I think these are less of a mystery. There are three altogether and they were stacked perfectly on top of each other. Judging by the soil and the dead roots, they seem to have been used as a surround for a flower bed.
The photo below shows just two of them, the third remains to be unearthed. They are 172cm outside diameter, the metal is approx 70cm x 2cm.
I assume they are rims for old-fashioned wagon or cart wheels. My guess was a road-going vehicle rather than an agricultural one since the narrow smooth rim would sink in mud .
The only thing that leaves me with a niggling doubt is the size, I’ve never seen a cart wheel that big - but I’ll admit, I’ve not seen that many cart wheels!
What to you think? Cart wheel? Steering wheel from an Intergalactic Klingon Warship?
Our rims look about the same ish diameter. Our house was the village wheel rights so expected finds in the garden. Rings for cooperidge would be thinner I would expect. I believe our rings have a few bolt holes in them. See if I can find a picture
I have seen some very very large wooden barrells in wine caves, they look like the central rings where the barrell is widest to me. Another thought is for agricultural use like the old fashioned threshing machines.
A ring of diameter 1.72m would be much bigger than would fit any barrel I’ve ever seen (barrels usually being taller than they are wide, you’d have a barrel at least 2m tall).
Could be a strengthening ring for something similar, like part of a wine or cider press?
They certainly look strong enough to be part of a press but I would have expected to see holes where the wooden staves of the press were fixed to the circular metal rings, and these rings have no holes in them. I’m still thinking ‘wheels’.
If wheels have been discounted, due to not having fixings… perhaps they are, indeed, for some vat/barrel.
No idea… but don’t discount barrels/vats… I’ve seen a wide variation in size from small enough to sit on one’s counter… to absolutely huge…
visiting wineries and alcohol distilling places.. has been absolutely fascinating over the years. We’ve been lucky enough to see really ancient stuff, some still in use… as well as modern variations on the theme..
Those are just like the rings we found in our barn. We turned them into edgings for circular flower borders. We had them welded to give us greater height and ended up wtih 5 completed beds and then encircled them with pebbles.
Hi Elizabeth, that’s what these three rings were used for - a flower bed - but as the garden had been uncared-for for many years, they had been lost in the tall grass and weeds (and saplings) that overtook the garden.
