Casgliadau Arlein

Bench with staple vice on North wall of Wheelwrights shop. Length = 91.5". Width = 22". Height = 25" with vice 40.25" high. [accession/catalogue card description]

Two physically numbered parts with no obvious conection between them. One part is made of two different sized boards (2330 x 275 x 35mm and 1680 x 270 x 30mm) held together by three batens nailed across them. The fact that the batens look much newer than the boards and that two nails used to attach a baten project through the top of the smaller of the two boards, suggests that the batens may have been added by the museum to keep the boards together when the workshop was dismantled. The shorter of the two boards appears to have been the front of a work surface, as the front edge is rounded and more worn than the other edges. The other part is of a much sturdier construction and appears to be one corner of a low bench. The top is 73mm thick and has one leg in a corner and a cross member attached to the top of the leg and extending across the width of the bench. A short length of iron chain is stapled to one end but the other end of the bench has been lost. The work surface has a corner cut out of it, two holes through it near where it is broken off and a short length if iron rod protruding from a split in the top. [RP; 12/05/2009]