Mystery object 2

[jagnut66]

Hi,
Another brain teaser or not maybe..............
I dug this up not long ago and although I have a few ideas I'm not 100% sure on what it is, so I'm hoping there's some social historians among the members who may recognise it.
As an aside I've dug up all sorts in my garden from hand made bricks, Victorian blue willow, salt glaze stoneware, various other bits of pottery, clay pipe and the star exhibit an 1820 George 3rd silver shilling, which given that he died in January 1820 must have been lost quite soon after it was minted. The display cabinet is getting quite full......
Anyway back to the plot, no sorry lost that years ago, maybe I'll dig it up in the back garden at some point.............
So does anyone recognise this??
Best wishes,
Mike.[frame][/frame][frame][/frame][frame][/frame]

[Trickydicky]

It's a shut off valve for a gas wall light, before electricity houses were lit by gas. Because of this you should be able to date it quite accurately.

[panky]

I think it could be a gas tap, the type a piece of rubber hose was attached to for 'portable' gas appliances like clothes boilers and fires.

[jagnut66]

My house was built in 1950, though by the 'finds' I often wonder what might have been on the site before the council built this estate just after the last war.

It's a shut off valve for a gas wall light

Interesting, if it is can somebody date it?

I think it could be a gas tap, the type a piece of rubber hose was attached to for 'portable' gas appliances like clothes boilers and fires.

Scary, very scary, I'm glad safety regs have moved on a bit since that was considered 'safe'.................

[panky]

The house where I grew up was built in the early 50's and it had a more modern version of it on a pipe in the kitchen. I never saw it actually used but my mum used to connect it to a boiler for the babies nappies (two elder brothers)

[graham1957]

we used to have a gas poker for lighting the coal fire, it was inserted under the coal and with a length of rubber pipe it connected to a tap on the wall like that one, in them days there was no mobile phones/ texts etc to distract the person lighting the fire.

[jagnut66]

Any thoughts as to a date / it's age??
Best wishes,
Mike.

[BEJT1]

We lived in a council house built in 1955 that had three of these installed. One by the side of the fireplace for the gas poker, one in the lobby next to a galvanised boiler (a bit like a poss tub) and one in the kitchen by the gas cooker. The design was similar to yours but perhaps a little more modern.

[philthehill]

The mystery object (gas tap) featured (a nice close up too) in a documentary last evening regarding John Christie who killed 8 persons at 10 Rillington place Notting Hill in the 1940s.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Christie_(murderer)
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/ar ... asgow.html

[olderisbetter]

I had one of these next to the fireplace, when i did work on the house i found it was till live and the fire place was coal so i was curious about the gas supply, it turns out that it used to have a gas lance that connected to it on a rubber hose and they used to light that then shove it into the coal fire to get it started, I bet they had a few singed burned eyebrows back in the day.

[jagnut66]

Thanks for all the replies, all information is interesting.
I suspect then that 1950's or slightly earlier, as people seem to think it's styling is slightly older, is the closest we'll get to a date.
I'd love to see pictures of the other variations if anyone has any, also if anyone has a picture of one with a hose and lance attached, that would be interesting.
And a picture of this shut off valve for a gas wall lamp, which I have to admit I'd have loved it to have been, as that might have made it quite old.
I may polish it up (as best I can) and mount it on the skirting next to my open fire......
Best wishes,
Mike.