Researching the Pews

The Museum has five pews in the Collection - inherited from the former Methodist Church of 1873 that we occupy, and thought to possibly be the "good" pews ordered for the preceding Bark Church about 1865.

The photograph above is not a good one - just a quick snap in the shed so we have something on record. We need to get them out and do better.

Because, as we were looking at them the other day, this is what we spotted on two of them:

These little plaques are about the size of a 50 cent piece, in pressed tin or brass.

All the pews appear identical - next job is to crawl all over them and find if there are holes where there would have been plaques on the other three.

Jenny Coates, who is working on our Significance Assessment, is off on the hunt. So far she has researched the partnership, and believes they would have to be made between 1 March 1865 and 7 March 1884, which fits the time frame. The firm of Oldfield and Lindley had HUGE premises in Carlton before the partnership dissolved.

Has anyone else out there any pieces in their collection by Oldfield & Lindley?