A Merritt float

Here we have another new image given to the museum this month and this is one we particularly like. It shows a carnival float, no doubt in a trade class, entered by Merritt Brothers. We don’t have a date but we estimate it to be the 1920s.

Merritt Brothers float at a 1920s carnival

Here we see a simple and pleasing four wheeled waggon drawn by horse power. There is some decoration with branches and a goodly collection of horseshoes.

The identity of the float

The Merritts were farriers and smiths as their badge says. Their premises were the former smithy at the edge of Broadwell

Let’s take a look at the people.

The man on the left is wearing a bandsman’s cap. More than one member of this family was active in the Lavington Prize Band. John Merritt was its leader for 60 or more years.

Another bandsman’s cap. The Merritts were rightly proud of the band.

Sadly we have no positive names to put to these people.

In the background there is another waggon which belonged to the Spencer family at Halstead Farm in Easterton. So we would assume the photo was taken locally but we cannot identify just where.

And help with identities would be much appreciated.

The shoeing shed

Judy Livyer was a friend and house share mate of Peggy Welch/Gye. We believe she came to Market Lavington as a World War Two land girl, palled up with Peggy and shared her High Street accommodation. She made a few sketches of the area and this one shows the Gyes shoeing shed.

The Shoeing Shed
A 1940s sketch by Judy Livyer

This was at Gye’s yard which was on White Street in Market Lavington.

Traditionally, the Gye company worked in wood but over the years they added more strings to their bow. When the Easterton smithy closed the Gye’s bought up the whole works including the Easterton smith/farrier who was Bert Burnett. This rather unkempt looking building must have been his domain. From all reports he was a first class farrier.

It’s good to have a sketch. This sort of view was not often chosen by a photographer. We get an idea of the conditions in which people carried on daily lives as recently as the 1940s.

H J Merritt gets paid

This is another bill paid by Holloway of West Lavington. As is often the case, the bill provides an insight into life in times past – in this case almost 100 years ago.

1918 bill issued by H J Merritt of Market Lavington

H J (Henry) Merritt was very much the blacksmith and farrier. It was his brother who was more involved with the cycle business. This receipted bill was for horse shoes. In January and February, Mr Holloway had to pay extra for shoes with ‘frost studs’. We assume this was something to make sure horses did not slip on icy roads. By the end of March ordinary shoes were used.

But in this case what we really like about this bill is the sponsor with the advert at the top. Before electricity came to places then oil for lamps was a much wanted commodity and in the advert we see what appears to be a comfortable and reasonably well to do gentleman reading his paper under an oil lamp which is burning ‘Pure Oil’ – the ‘Finest American Lamp Oil’.

These days we just assume we flick a switch when we want light. There are still people alive locally who remember those pre-electricity days.

 

Merritt Brothers – Farriers

Today we show another of our receipts kept by Holloways of West Lavington and now findable at Market Lavington Museum. Today we look at a receipt issued by Merritt Brothers who were farriers and general smiths.

Merritt Brothers receipt from 1924

We can see that the Merritt brothers were J. H. and T Merritt and each had smithing or farriery qualifications. We can also see that they operated in Cheverell as well as in Market Lavington.

The year for this receipt was 1924 and the Merritts clearly relied on word of mouth for trade. No phone number is given, probably because the blacksmiths didn’t have one at that time.

The Merritts had premises alongside Broadwell which no doubt gave them a plentiful supply of water for quenching red hot iron.

It looks as though it was quite expensive for Mr Holloway to keep his horses shod. We don’t have any farriers at the museum but we think that most of the work done had been ‘removes’ and ‘shoes’. Removes have been charged at 1/1½ each and shoes at twice that – 2/3. In decimal money this equates to about 6p for removes and 12p for shoes. But of course this was in 1924 and the equivalent cost today would be about £9 for removes and double that for shoes.

Mr Holloway spent £6-15-0 (£6.75) in this quarter. That’s about £1000 at today’s rates.

We love these receipts at the museum. They provide a link to past times, to businesses long gone and to skills no longer practised in the village.