A FEW people correctly identified last week’s curiosity as a cork thinner, or crusher - a device used to reduce the size of corks to fit bottles. Frederic Manby, from Gargrave, who has one, says the Victorian cork crusher was used by chemists to squeeze wet corks to a size to fit medicine and other bottles, and once in the bottle the cork expanded. He says it was made by Archibald Kendrick in West Bromwich, who made small iron products including coffee grinders, and is still in business. Frederic adds there are holes in the feet so that it could be screwed to a bench, and they had different cork sizes. “Mine, which came from our family hardware shop, had three gauges.,” he says. Richard Bayley had spotted a similar device on television’s Bargain Hunt, while Phil Cox thought it was an early cork sizer.

Experts from the Folly Museum at Settle, where this item is now on show, say it is a cork thinner from before the days of pre-packaging, when pharmacists, grocers and other tradespeople decanted a variety of liquids for sale into glass or ceramic bottles. “A cork stopper was the most generally used method of sealing the container. It was obviously important that there was no leakage and so the cork had to fit the bottle precisely. Our object, which came from a local pharmacy, is a device for thinning the cork to the exact dimensions of the bottle neck by applying pressure to the moistened cork. Once in the bottle, the cork would then expand to provide a tight seal.”

The Folly is open from 1pm to 4pm every day, to find out more, visit:thefolly.org.uk.