Old Whistle Found While Metal Detecting

[Cycleops]

Due to the marking P WAY or permanent way as you rightly say it would have been used by a lookout for a gang repairing the track who would use it to warn in the event of an approaching train.

 

[Oldhippy]

Awesome find for the first try, hopefully it will spur your son on to discovery of his local and wider environment and how we came to be where we are.

 

[HMS_Dave]

Yeah, does the ruddy thing still whistle?

Great find - well done.

It tries to whistle, but it's not quite there. Sadly.

 

[HMS_Dave]

Thanks everyone for your kind words. @tom73 Absolutely. It's quite difficult for kids and teenagers these days to save their money. It seems no matter where they go, they're encouraged to spend it on guff, but he managed to save his birthday money and his pocket money up to buy a Metal Detector and im really proud of him, its something he's wanted. We've been doing the research together and he has a huge interest in the history. More so than i thought! I have to say im quite a fan of it now!

 

[Cycleops]

Awesome find for the first try, hopefully it will spur your son on to discovery of his local and wider environment and how we came to be where we are.

You mean a wheel from a penny farthing

 

[Oldhippy]

I have a mate who metal detects, I love history myself and am going to join him on his exploits. I have always fancied it.

 

[Reynard]

As an interesting aside, in the series of Antiques Road Trip that they're currently showing (repeating), there is actually a small 5 minute-ish feature on the history of whistles:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/m000d2nb/antiques-road-trip-series-20-episode-2

21:45 in.

 

[midlife]

Slightly off topic but I guess you have watched "The Detectorists"? Great series with humour that hits the gentler spot

 

[stoatsngroats]

I would concur with @Cycleops regarding the P Way marking, rather than a guards whistle. The number may indicate that it would be a personal issue to someone, who would have it as their own equipment.
It might be possible to contact someone to see if there’s a record of it being issued, but whom the someone is I couldn’t say.

 

[Badger_Boom]

You could try looking up the census to see if any previous residents are recorded as working on the railways.

 

[classic33]

You could try looking up the census to see if any previous residents are recorded as working on the railways.

There's streets that were there, no longer there. Add in streets being renamed and it may be impossible.

The address difference gives a date of 1909 for the whistle.

 

[Reynard]

There's streets that were there, no longer there. Add in streets being renamed and it may be impossible.

That's easily checked. Well, relatively. Most local authorities hold maps in their archives going back to the early 1800's. Well, I know mine has, and they're available online. It's easy enough to use them in sequence to work backwards in time. It's amazing to see how land use changes over the years.

Checking the census is a good idea. Another angle to investigate is the railway itself. Is / was there a railway line nearby? Or a depot? Maybe not current, but perhaps part of the Beeching cuts.

I'll say it again, but it's amazing how one small and relatively mundane object can just open up history in a totally different way to a school textbook. And it's much more engaging. Far better than learning dates by rote and what the Romans Did For Us.

 

[classic33]

That's easily checked. Well, relatively. Most local authorities hold maps in their archives going back to the early 1800's. Well, I know mine has, and they're available online. It's easy enough to use them in sequence to work backwards in time. It's amazing to see how land use changes over the years.

Checking the census is a good idea. Another angle to investigate is the railway itself. Is / was there a railway line nearby? Or a depot? Maybe not current, but perhaps part of the Beeching cuts.

I'll say it again, but it's amazing how one small and relatively mundane object can just open up history in a totally different way to a school textbook. And it's much more engaging. Far better than learning dates by rote and what the Romans Did For Us.

Check https://maps.nls.uk/geo/explore/

 

[HMS_Dave]

As an interesting aside, in the series of Antiques Road Trip that they're currently showing (repeating), there is actually a small 5 minute-ish feature on the history of whistles:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/m000d2nb/antiques-road-trip-series-20-episode-2

21:45 in.

Fantastic thanks for that, just watched it.

 

[HMS_Dave]

I've done a bit of digging and the area it was found in had a scrapyard near by many years ago according the map surveys this was in the 1920's/30's. I don't think that would have any significance here. Before the houses were built it was a fields, but the street (or lane as it may have been then) was still there in the 1800's. There is a train station of the old LNWR about a mile away. It is still used today, that is Lichfield Trent Valley. My pure guess at this point would be that a previous occupant worked for the LNWR and perhaps had a grandchild who played with it and dropped it, perhaps lost until now. Although that is one of many possibilities. We hope i can uncover such intricate detail about it. I've sent a few emails away and hopefully can shed more light onto it.