Source: Wikimedia
The stove was blacked because bare cast iron rusts.
That is the whole reason, and the job gets remembered as pure decoration because the result was so striking. But…
Source: Wikimedia Commons
Every farm had one chain that was trusted and several that were not.
The good one was known by sight and kept where it could be found. The…
Source: Wikimedia Commons
A castor set was a revolving stand of bottles that stood in the middle of the table.
The name means nothing now, so start with the object:…
Source: Wikimedia Commons
Housecleaning was an annual event, not a weekly habit.
Once a year the entire house was taken apart. Rooms were emptied, contents carried into the yard, surfaces stripped,…
Source: Wikimedia
There is a hole high up on the wall of my grandparents' old kitchen with a round metal collar in it, plastered over badly and painted the same colour…
Source: Wikimedia
The bonnet in my great-grandmother's things is not pretty. It is faded cotton, it has a brim like a tunnel with stiff slats sewn into it, and there is…