Five more Historic Things you really never thought you need to know. #11

 Five Historic things you never thought you needed to know. #11




  • The Art of Screwing Corks


The first cork screw seems to have been developed out of the worm, used for cleaning muskets in the 1630s. The first patent for such a thing was granted in 1795 by the Reverend Samuel Henshall.  There is a museum devoted to them.  https://www.museodeicavatappi.it/ 



One of Rev Henshall's corkscrews



  • The Free, United and Sober Society of Bilston was active in Staffordshire in the 1790s. 


The Sobriety in their name didn’t refer to the demon drink but built cottages to serve the needs of the aged and infirmed. In 1794 they gave 20 guineas to set up the Staffordshire Yeomanry Cavalry.



  • Death and Football


Cromer Town Football Team play at Cabbell Park. The team was given a lease in 1922 by Evelyn Bond-Cabbell.  In 2009 panic gripped North Norfolk when it was revealed a clause in the lease said it ended 21 years after the death of Queen Victoria’s last surviving grandchild.  King Olav V of Norway had popped his clogs in 1991 and so 2012 looked like the moment of doom.  George Lascelles, 7th Earl of Harewood came to the rescue - by also being a Grandchild of Victoria. He died in 2011, meaning the club have till 2032.




  • Small, Medium or Large


Seizing for clothes can be traced back to the eighteenth century, and possibly before that. Ready to wear clothing seems to have emerged in Seventeenth Century London. The New Model Army got kit of differing sizes.  By the 1740s at least one salesman, from Hounsditch, used a scale of 1-10 for his orders - and you can bet his ‘6’ wasn’t the same as his neighbours ‘6’.


Around 1800 standardisation began to be a creeping thing, aided by the introduction of the inch tape. This was moved forward in America by the Civil War and the need for the mass production of uniforms in those parts.


Thanks to Sarah Thursfield for providing the information to satisfy an idle curiosity. 




  • Tossing the Pieman


The practice of 'tossing the pieman' was common, particularly among costermongers as it appealed to their gambling instincts. The customer tossed the coin, and if the pieman won they received a penny without handing over a pie, but if they lost the pie was handed over for nothing. 


https://www.londonmuseum.org.uk/collections/v/object-717445/the-coster-boy-and-girl-tossing-the-pieman/




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