LAST week’s Craven Curiosity had everyone stumped, so it seems - not even one of our regulars wanted to have a stab at it. They, and there were in fact two objects, were two instruments used by a lamplighter for the lighting of street lamps.

Bryan Morgan, collections assistant at Craven Museum and Gallery, in Skipton Town Hall, where the items are on show, tells us: “The instruments are metal tubes that have one hole at the bottom and several holes at the top. Every evening the lamp lighter would have climbed a ladder to reach the lamppost and used a wick inserted into one end of the instrument to light the lamp. At dawn the lamplighter would then have used a hook on the other end of the instrument to extinguish the flame.”

He continues: “Early street lights were generally candles or oils and later in the 19th century gas lighting became the most popular form of street lighting and soon automated gas lamps came along making the role of lamplighter redundant. The earliest record of street lighting comes from the 4th century AD in ancient Greco-Roman city of Antioch which is in modern Turkey. In the late 16th century Paris began to install new glass lanterns in every city neighbourhood. In 1807 at Pall Mall in London the first public street lighting with gas was demonstrated and in 1812 Westminster bridge was lit with gas lighting. In 1825 Preston was the first place outside of London to get public gas lighting.” Suggestions for this week’s object should be sent before 8am on Monday to lesley.tate@cravenherald.co.uk