Vintage Household Items

A linen press from Leire Mill, and a stone hot water bottle, usually put in an old sock! Vintage food and drink boxes, tins and cartons all on show at Lutterworth & District Museum.

Linen Press

Device for pressing linen, known in various forms from medieval times to the 18thC. It basically consists of two flat boards which can be pressed tightly together (with the linen between) by means of a spiral screw. A term for a cupboard for the storage of linen, normally with sliding trays enclosed by doors with drawers below. Linen production declined in the 18thC as the yarn broke easily on a power loom. When the problem was overcome in the late 19thC, cotton had taken over the market.

Stone Hot Water Bottle

A hot water bottle in the house was stoneware which is a certain type of clay fired at a particularly high temperature and glazed so that it resembles polished stone. In fact stoneware was often just called ‘stone’. Stone hot water bottles were much heavier than today’s rubber ones, particularly when filled with water. These stoneware hot water bottles were shaped so that as much of the bed as possible could be warmed. The idea was to stand them upright in bed, on their small flat end so that the sheets and blankets formed a tent-like structure over them. The peak of the ‘tent’ was the special feature of the rounded knob opposite the flat end, which also served as a carrying handle​

Newsagents Delivery Bike

Cecil F Simms Newsagents Shop Bike Circa 1950. Basket from Payne Basket Weavers, 6 Church Street, Lutterworth. The Payne family moved to Lutterworth from Northampton in about 1867. Reuben Payne, Wife Catherine felt Lutterworth was a good place to raise their 9 Children. Their eldest son John George carried on the family business into the 1930s. Basket making was a vital craft. Anything which did not come in a sack or barrel came in a basket. The basket was osiers, which were willow shoots cut from beds down by the River Swift at Brandon Bridge. The shoots were peeled off their bark by using a fork called a brake by women and youths. The Headmaster of Sherrier School complained several boys were absent ‘‘illegally employed at Misterton osier beds’’