Casgliadau Arlein

A wooden tool known as a bed key or bed tensioner used to tighten bed ropes. The ropes were between the wooden frame of the bed, with the bedding or mattress on top of them. Over a period of time the ropes would gradually slacken and would require tightening. It was used to tighten the ropes in Spring, the origin of the phrase ‘sleep tight’. At one end of the bed key is long slot into which an individual rope would fit. The key would then be rotated to tighten the rope. There would have been a dowel or wooden handle in the hole of the key. The ropes were loosened slightly in the summer during drier temperatures.