duke
Old Oak
Anyone know the history of this garden fork.
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Uk garden fork.
- Thread starter duke
- Start date
duke
Old Oak
My mother in law brought this over from England in 2003, all she had was a very large veg garden. Maybe she use it for turning compost.
duke
Old Oak
I found this - does it look the same(ish)? Handle's a different design though.
www.retonthenet.co.uk
Vintage Gardening Yardley & Co Stourbridge T Handle 4 Tine Garden Fork 42" 1957 Broad Arrow Mark
Item - Vintage T Handle Allotment/Garden Fork made by Yardley Co of Stourbridge, England, Circa 1950s; this is an extremely well constructed and
duke
Old Oak
I think the one in your link is older than ours, I'm guessing the two we have are from the 60's.
Back when so much work was done by hand, subtle differences of design really mattered in agricultural tools. Many common tools had regional or trade variants that made them more suitable to working with them all day long.
I'm no expert on forks, so I'll just suggest that you look through the illustrations in this old Parkes catalogue and compare the details with yours. It may well be a manure fork.
I noticed the British Standards kitemark and thought that might mean it's more modern, but that mark was introduced in 1903.
Just from the lettering, I'd suggest 50s.
The company history here says they closed in 1962.
I'm no expert on forks, so I'll just suggest that you look through the illustrations in this old Parkes catalogue and compare the details with yours. It may well be a manure fork.
Parkes Edge Tools : Illustrated Catalogue Export No. 28 : A. & F. Parkes & Co., Ltd. : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive
116 p., illus., 26.2 cm, trade catalog
archive.org
I noticed the British Standards kitemark and thought that might mean it's more modern, but that mark was introduced in 1903.
Just from the lettering, I'd suggest 50s.
The company history here says they closed in 1962.
SamQ aka Ah! Q!
Old Oak
As a general rule, 'flat', wide, tines equals a garden fork. "Graipe" in N.Ireland, possibly Scotland. Handles here also tend to be 'Tees'; the closed handle is rarely seen. Closed handles appear to be Henglish in preference?
Circular section tines are for lifting hay or manure around a stableyard or byre; longer, straight, handles are for lifting hay in the field onto a cart. H.T.H.
Sam
Circular section tines are for lifting hay or manure around a stableyard or byre; longer, straight, handles are for lifting hay in the field onto a cart. H.T.H.
Sam
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Lurker
Old Oak
I like the closed handle wooden ones (plastic is available 
) like the one in the first photo.
Donkeys years ago I went into an old fashioned hardware shop in Shrewsbury.
It had quite a small frontage , the old lady ( must have been at least 80) serving me took me along a long narrow room and then up three floors to a dusty room and let me choose a couple.
They were silly cheap and I queried the price, she said it was fine and the first time she had sold any for years.
I m still using them, I give them an annual wipe over with linseed oil.
) like the one in the first photo.Donkeys years ago I went into an old fashioned hardware shop in Shrewsbury.
It had quite a small frontage , the old lady ( must have been at least 80) serving me took me along a long narrow room and then up three floors to a dusty room and let me choose a couple.
They were silly cheap and I queried the price, she said it was fine and the first time she had sold any for years.
I m still using them, I give them an annual wipe over with linseed oil.