A coffee grinder

Now here’s one to set many a nose twitching.  It’s a coffee grinder, once used in the Gye household.

An Edwardian Coffee Mill at Market Lavington Museum

This was a wall-mounted grinder. Roasted coffee beans were put in the top and coffee grounds came out at the bottom. This grinder is believed to be Edwardian in age – about 100 years old.

Maker's Plate on the coffee mill

The maker’s badge says A Kenrick and Sons Patent Coffee Mill and carries a royal logo. This company were in business in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries and appear to have been cast iron manufacturers. Whether it was a coffee mill, a letterbox or even the shell of a hand grenade – Kenricks were your company.

But why the twitching nose? This comes from our curator, who remembers, from childhood, the delectable smell of roasting coffee beans as he walked along his local High Street. Later, he recalls, the same pleasing aroma as he turned the handle on a wall mounted coffee mill to produce the grounds. But then, finally, came the intense disappointment as his father converted the pleasing grounds into a thick drink with an almost oily consistency and a completely unpalatable taste. Our curator still drinks weak coffee to this day.

We’d love to know more about our grinder and A Kenrick and Sons, the company. Please get in touch if you can help.

Tags: food, kitchen, Market Lavington, metal, Museum