Artefact Of The Week


This week, some of the Harrison Collection is still on display in the Ryedale Folk Museum Gallery. Rather quaint is this dog wheel, used in the seventeeth and eighteenth centuries for turning a spit over an open fire. The breed of dog was called a 'Turnspit',(now extinct) a cross between a Daschund and a Jack Russell.If the dog would not trot then hot embers would be placed in the base of the wheel to make it move. Many of the expressions used in the English language such as 'dog tired' and 'every dog shall have its day' originate from the use of a dog wheel.

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