The Tool Collection at Luton Hoo
In January 2005 the redundant wheelwright’s and blacksmith’s shops at Luton Hoo had to be cleared. Much of the contents, including many tools were put into one of the sheds. A number of volunteers felt that these should be catalogued as they formed an important part of the history of the estate.
We started to sort out the tools and soon discovered that the majority of them were badly rusted. We sought the help of the Curator of the Salomon Tool Collection at St Albans Museum who kindly gave us advice on how to clean the various items and was able to identify many of them for us. Over the next two years a small group of Harpenden Area DFAS Volunteers photographed, measured, catalogued and cleaned the blacksmith’s tools. More tools relating to other skills are being discovered all the time so the job will be ongoing but by early 2008 most of the work was done on the blacksmiths equipment.
Our next task was to find a way of exhibiting the items so that they could be seen by a wider audience. With the help of other volunteers on the project the old garden stable was cleared and painted and we were able to assemble a display of some of the tools in time for the Heritage Open Days in September 2008. Our display area at the moment is quite small but because of the number of items we have it is hoped that we will be able to vary the display each year.
A lot of time and hard work has been contributed by the volunteers over the last three years but that is amply rewarded when we see how much interest the tools generate. We have had the added bonus of being able to collect memories from a number of men who have seen the collection and have talked about their experiences of working on the estate in the past.
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