MYSTERY OBJECTS

[plaques]

Well that didn't last long did it. Well done PanBiker.

[PanBiker]

Walked past it when entering often enough.

[Stanley]

Nice one both of you. I haven't been into the Dog for years, I wouldn't have got it. The funny thing about the Dog is that one of the earliest landlords was a strong Methodist and of course strictly teetotal in those days. That didn't stop him making money out of booze!



Where is this clock and more important, does anyone know its history?

[PanBiker]

I know but I'll leave it, not really fair for the off cum'd un's Stanley unless they use street view.

[Tizer]

While you're all pondering about Stanley's object here's one from me. It's about 1cm in size....

[Pluggy]

I know the clock as well, its been posted in the past.


Tiz's is a mains testing screwdriver viwed from the blunt end.

[Tizer]

Well blow me down! Pluggy's spot on and his screwdriver appears exactly the same as mine. And I thought I was being clever taking the pic end on - it took a lot of fiddling to get the screwdriver to stand up on its tip embedded in a lump of blu-tack!

Mrs Tiz hasn't seen the clock photo but when I mentioned it she said "I'll bet it's something to do with Newton Pickles".

[Pluggy]

I think 90% of 'mains testers' are made to the same design, I've 3 that look exactly the same as that.

[plaques]

Here's one I did earlier.

P2050017AC.jpg

.Mrs Tizer isn't far off.

Mrs Tiz hasn't seen the clock photo but when I mentioned it she said "I'll bet it's something to do with Newton Pickles".

. It'll be interesting to see if Wendy can conjure up an Earby picture for us.

[Wendyf]

Unlikely.....I don't know where this one is!

[plaques]

For the life of Riley you can't remember where it was built for?

[Stanley]

P has it in one, he has a good memory! The clock was made by Johnny Pickles for Riley Street Baptist Church in Earby in 1937 as a memorial to his old master Henry Brown. When they demolished the church he took the clock back and installed it at the Wellhouse works and when that was demolished, Jack Gissing, who had bought Brown and Pickles out, re-installed the clock on top of their Wellhouse Road offices.





The clock as it is today and the dedication plate. Click to enlarge.

Next one?

[Tizer]

I've had a telling off by Mrs Tiz. Apparently she'd said Johnny Pickles and I mis-quoted her by saying Newton Pickles!

Here's something very different, about 3 inches width, let's see what you think it is...

[PanBiker]

Is it some kind of natural sponge? I originally though amber green but then thought you would not have it to hand if you had a chunk that big, you could have a new car instead and change to spare.

[Cathy]

Very old rock, Jurassic Park ??

[Marilyn]

it looks like the bit they take out of someone when doing a hip replacement! (Very arthritic looking)
Neither of you have bought bits home after surgery have you?!

[Wendyf]

To me it looks like something you might put out on the bird feeder, or even a chunk of bread made from coarsely ground flour! Either that or a handful of sand.

[Wendyf]

It'll be interesting to see if Wendy can conjure up an Earby picture for us.

I've found a very poor photo which I'll post in Forgotten Corners now we have moved on.

[plaques]

Wendy, Quote, A distant view of Riley Street Methodist Chapel in an interesting photo! Is that the clock from Mystery Objects?

This photo is interesting by the fact that the Chapel clock, and also the the Wellhouse Mill clock, only shows one face. Clearly, the clock that John Pickles made was designed to drive four faces. Why did John make a clock more complicated than it needed to be or was this just the nature of the man?

[Stanley]

Tiz, tell J she has a good memory as well!
Is that a piece of weathered tufa?
P the number of faces that the clock supports is simply a product of the gearing in the tower, nothing to do with the actual mechanism of the clock movement.

[Tizer]

It's not sponge, ambergris (unfortunately), old hip or something to feed to birds. Cathy's in the general area with `very old rock' although it's not as old as Jurassic. Stanley's touched on rocks too and Wendy's sand is related but no-one is right on target yet. We need a more precise definition.

[chinatyke]

Millstone grit?

[plaques]

It doesn't look as though its cemented together as with normal rock so I'll go for an Alluvium type with lots of different bits in it.

[Stanley]

It looks to me like compacted coarse sand and the black bits in it could be fragments of tin-bearing ore. Is it what they used to dredge out of river beds in alluvial mining, very low grade tin-bearing sand?

[Tizer]

Now we're getting very close to the correct answer. I'd thought one of the earliest responses would have been `sandstone' but I think you all realised that it didn't look like normal sandstone and, anyway, Tizer would probably be trying to trick you! Chinatyke got close with Millstone Grit which is a type of sandstone and then Plaques and Stanley made good observations on the cementing of the grains and coarse sand appearance.

It's a rock that's composed of coarse sand grains cemented together by the calcite (calcium carbonate) of shell fragments but less dense and softer than normal sandstone. The reason for the difference is that sandrock is formed from aeolian (wind-blown) sand accumulated in coastal sand dunes and then compacted by overlying layers of rock rather than forming under water as does normal sandstone. It occurs in a few places in Cornwall and this specimen comes from Godrevy Point between Hayle and Portreath. It was formed about 190,000 years ago in a temperate period (interglacial) between two of the Ice Ages. As well as all the coarse, rounded rock and mineral fragments it contains some small pebbles. What particularly fascinates me is the thought that these small pebbles, looking just like those you'd find on the beach now, were polished into pebble shapes by the sea or rivers at least 190,000 years ago. The smaller components are very varied in appearance and it's easy to spot quartz, feldspar and chert. The black ones could be basalt or slate but there could, of course, also be bits of Stanley's tin ores, such as cassiterite and chalcocite washed down the rivers from what is now the Carnmenellis mining area.

Sandrock was used in the building of several Cornish churches but it's really too soft and suffers bad erosion. It's regraded as one of the geologically youngest forms of rock that has been used for building in the UK.