Spade

[Sheal]

Does anyone know what this spade might be used for please?

 

[zigs]

Looks like a peat cutting spade Sheal

 

[Tetters]

It looks more like a weapon of mass destruction to me
You can only do half a job with that!

 

[Mr_Yan]

looks more like half a headman's axe than a spade

 

[Sheal]

It's not mine and I've cheekily posted it on behalf of @Logan. I hope you don't mind Logan.

Looks like a peat cutting spade Sheal

I thought that Zigs but I can't find anything like it on the net and peat cutting spades tend to be straight edged and narrow.

 

[Tetters]

I found this one on ebay for £79.99 It's a bit different, but similar as it's lop sided

 

[Tetters]

These are from Norfolk.

 

[Logan]

It's not mine and I've cheekily posted it on behalf of @Logan. I hope you don't mind Logan.

Thanks Sheal, i don't mind.

 

[Logan]

There seems to be a lot of different shapes to do the same thing.

 

[YumYum]

I don't know but It kind of looks like something you swing on your left side to dig or plow with. Hence the missing blade. Maybe the blade broke off? Is the point missing? There is no rounded place to put your foot on top so I don't think its for digging down and stepping on it.

 

[Logan]

I'll try and find out more maybe the weekend.

 

[zigs]

It's not mine and I've cheekily posted it on behalf of @Logan. I hope you don't mind Logan.



I thought that Zigs but I can't find anything like it on the net and peat cutting spades tend to be straight edged and narrow.

I recognised it from when I used to live near the peat bogs in Somerset

 

[Sheal]

Well done Zigs, you were right.

They may have changed shape down the years too.

 

[zigs]

Cheers Sheal

I think the Irish ones have a corner bit on them too.

I used to live on the Somerset levels, an area of land that is low lying, a lot of it reclaimed from the sea since Roman times onward. There are huge areas of peat that have been cut for hundreds of years and although it takes a long time to form it has never all been dug out and the old workings get flooded and are an excellent area for all sorts of wildlife. Not only is it very important for birds, there's also frogs, newts and Otters there.

Despite all this working very well in harmony with nature, some bright sparks in the 1980's with university degrees and green wellies, decided that the farmers should stop dredging the ditches (Rhynes) and let it all go "back to nature"

The farmers tried to point out that this is a man made habitat that needs managing but this fell on deaf ears to the townies that decided they knew better than all the engineers that drained the land in the first place and the people that had managed it for generations.

Roll on a couple of decades of letting all the rhynes and drains silt up and we were then subjected to the worst floods in living memory...

All the pictures in this video are mine from when we lived on the levels...

Bear in mind that all the lakes you saw should be farmland with cows and crops.

We lived in the next village to Muchelney, which many of you might remember as the one that got cut off for weeks and was only accessable by boat. My mate Roddy lived there and his downstairs was 4 foot deep in water.

We watched the floods come right round the back of our house and got very close to it. Every road out of the village was flooded and we only made it through by driving at a snails pace. Had to back up several times as the van started floating

 

[Logan]

Thanks Zigs for the id.