THE Craven Curiosity featured last week, pictured below, probably required a little arcane medical knowledge to define, as there were no correct guesses. It was, in fact, explains Anne Read of the Museum of North Craven at The Folly in Settle: “A ‘Guy’s pattern metal finger splint’ from the early 20th century It is made from a single piece of metal and the upper part is perforated and shaped to cradle the damaged finger, while the lower part is a flat oval which fits against the palm of the hand. We know from a wonderful illustrated period catalogue of surgical instruments produced by the Holborn Surgical Instrument Company that a dozen of these splints cost 3/6 in Edwardian days. The ‘telegraphic’ address for this company was ‘Amputation, London’!

As for this week’s Curiosity, pictured above, Anne writes: “This comes with warmest Christmas wishes from everyone at The Folly to all readers. It’s not our usual ‘guess what’ object but it still poses a question. Postcards like this were commonly sent in the early years of the last century. Ours dates from Christmas 1907 and was posted in Chicago by a ‘Mr and Mrs Maynard, with hearty greetings’ to Mr and Mrs John Wilman in Feizor. We know that the Wilmans lived in the cottage subsequently occupied by Frederic Riley, well-known author and lecturer, but do any readers know who were the Maynards and what was their connection to this area? We’d love to hear from you!” Please send comments to: news@cravenherald.co.uk by 8am on Monday.