Off the hook - Totnes Museum

By: Richard Wyatt
Added: 11 September 2011

Our thanks for the help we've been getting in trying to identify this mysterious and rather rusty object which our Heritage Office, Alan Langmaid is pictured holding. 

From Plymouth Museum's Community Services Department, Nigel Overton emailed to say he thought it was a 'clinker pricker' - an object used for rattling up and de-clinkering a steam loco fire grate or a large/industrial boiler/furnace grate.

While from the Royal Albert Memorial Museum in Exeter a rather different take. Digital Media Officer,  Rick Lawrence is plumping for an early version of a mooring hook and sent us a web site to compare the object with its contemporary counterpart.

 Have to leave you to make up your own mind with these suggestions, unless anyone else knows differently?