Touch Burners on Wincobank Hill

[55ranby 10]

Touchwood burners, you won't be surprised to hear, were also made in Endcliffe park and there was serious competition as to who could make the "best". A point-scoring refinement was to insert nails like prison bars in the "windows" at either end and they had to be constant thickness with sharpish edges - so there! All good fun. Coincidentally, only a few weeks ago I was trying to explain all this to a disbelieving Southerner.

[Runningman 142]

A very interesting thread !! Can some academic on here delve further into the past and give some explanation as to how this marvellous piece of ingenuity first arose !

Where did you get the idea from, your mates I presume, your parents wouldn't have imparted knowledge of making such a potentially dangerous item.

Were they unique to Sheffield, when was the last time you heard of one being made.

My 11 year old Grandson with his Ipad would think I was stark raving bonkers if I told him we would go looking for some clay and make a touch burner.

Is there information anywhere relating to the history of touch burners !

[handypandy 14]

I've not noticed this thread before, but Lakerman (above) taught me the art...lol. There was a high brick wall (I think) at the Cammel Rd entrance to Firth Park and unless my brain is addled, I think that we stored them in holes in the wall.

 

 

 

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[lakerman 16]

I've not noticed this thread before, but Lakerman (above) taught me the art...lol. There was a high brick wall (I think) at the Cammel Rd entrance to Firth Park and unless my brain is addled, I think that we stored them in holes in the wall.

 

 

 

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I refuse to comment on this thread any more without my solicitor being present.:hihi::hihi::hihi::

[Jim Hardie 523]

I lived on Hinde House Lane and remember making touchburners from clay we got at the side of the stream in Firth Park woods at the side of the library.

Shows how we enjoyed simple pleasures then - can't see kids today doing it - can you?

 

Lol, that's exactly where we got our clay from. We called them 'winter warmers'.

[Runningman 142]

The art of blowing on a fire to encourage combustion is without doubt an ancient task.

Lead smelting was assisted by the prevailing wind blowing. We have the Bole Hills locations in Sheffield.

I can remember in the morning when you had prepared the fire behind the grate, lit the paper and found the damn thing was going out on you, you gave it a blow !

Any pipe smokers amongst you will automatically rely on the passage of air through the pipe stem to light your baccy !

 

What am I doing on a Friday evening talking about this, better get a life !!

[VicD 10]

We used to make touch burners from clay on Brown Street, Rec in Rotherham.

Any kid with a couple of matches was a bit of a King in those days.

[Runningman 142]

On 12/02/2015 at 22:17, Runningman said:

A very interesting thread !! Can some academic on here delve further into the past and give some explanation as to how this marvellous piece of ingenuity first arose !

Where did you get the idea from, your mates I presume, your parents wouldn't have imparted knowledge of making such a potentially dangerous item.

Were they unique to Sheffield, when was the last time you heard of one being made.

My 11 year old Grandson with his Ipad would think I was stark raving bonkers if I told him we would go looking for some clay and make a touch burner.

Is there information anywhere relating to the history of touch burners !

Good evening Touch Burner manufacturers !

Resurrecting this post in the hope that someone has information re their history

I note that Arundel and Redneck were making them in the 1930's

Have you heard stories of them being made outside of the Sheffield area ?

[johnpm 18]

IN my part of Sheffield (Page Hall) we all  made touch burners  in the late 40's & early 50's from clay found on stream edges in Firth Park near the Library.  I now live at Guisborough North Yorkshire & no one up here has heard of them.

[Blackburnrod 13]

In 1942 I lived on Langsett Avenue and gathered clay from grave diggings in Wadsley Churchyard to make my touch burner which was fuelled by cotton rags. We had a house cleaner called Mrs Hague during my mother's pregnancy with my sister and her husband who worked in a brickworks made me a brick touchburner complete with a working chimney.

[Runningman 142]

A big favour please from you folks talking about Touch Burners. I am doing some research into their origin.

They were obviously from reading this thread,  made in various areas of Sheffield.

What I would like you to do is to make contact with a relation or friend who was born and raised in another part of the country.

Question them about Touch Burners, do they know what your are talking about, how did they make and use them.

 

All responses please via private message !

[trastrick 866]

Touch burners have an ancient origin. They also had an important function for early man.

 

Before we had matches, they were the containers used to carry fire from place to place, as tribes wandered and hunted and gathered.

 

They were containers designed to carry important essential commodity, fire!

 

And like water, oil and and food containers, were both artfully and functionally designed.

 

The lore of making them was passed down through generations, to us kids, like bows and arrows, fishing poles, staffs, whips, clubs, cudgels, and spears.

 

We made all these as kids from river banks and local woods, and we are probably the last generation to do so in the civilized world.

Edited August 22, 2020 by trastrick