Tools & tillage: a journal on the history of the implements of cultivation and other agricultural processes (3.1976/1979)

THE ‘GOWL GOB’

193


Fig. 2. Pwo gowl-gobs from County Mayo: a) after
M'Par lan b) after Knight.
Zwei Gowl-gobs aus der Grafschaft Mayo: a) nach
M’Parlan b) nach Knight.

handle and with a rectangular slot extending
half way up the blade on its median line
(Fig. 2, a) while some of the features of
Knight’s figure cannot be readily understood
even by reference to his own description
(Fig. 2, b). Fortunately, this unsatisfactory in-
formation can be supplemented by that to be
derived from the two specimens of the imple-
ment preserved in the National Museum, both
of which are imperfect but each of which re-
tains the elements that are missing in the
other.
One (Reg. No. W. 11) is that catalogued by

Wilde and Wakeman, whose brief descriptions
have been quoted above, and which was trans-
ferred to the National Museum in the last
century with the collection of antiquities be-
longing to the Royal Irish Academy
(Fig. 3, b). The single iron shoeing which still
remained in Wakeman’s time has now disap-
peared. Apart from the shoeings, the imple-
ment consists of two components: the handle
and what, for want of a more precise term,
may be called the stock. The latter, which
corresponds to the blade of a normal spade, is
an approximately rectangular piece of oak,
having a tanglike projection in the centre of its
upper edge, which serves as a means of attach-
ing the handle to the stock. A central longitu-
dinal opening divides the lower half of the
stock into two prongs. As the opening splays
towards the bottom, the prongs taper asym-
metrically to their extremities, where their
thickness is reduced to 7 mm. The front face of
the stock is flat and the reduction in thickness
was effected by paring down the backs of the
prongs. At a distance of 4 cm below the upper
edge of the stock is a pair of small rectangular
slots with their long axes aligned longitudi-
nally.Through these slots there pass the ends of
an iron strap which fastens the lower end of
the handle to the stock. On the back of the
stock the ends of the strap are folded inwards
towards each other and hammered flat against
the wood. At a distance of 2 cm below this pair
of slots is a second pair. Between them on the
back of the stock an iron strap lies flat against
the wood, its ends passing through the slots to
the front face where they are folded inwards
and hammered flat. No provision for a corre-
sponding strap appears on the second tool
described below and it is probable that it was
not an original feature but an addition to coun-
teract the effect of a split which had devel-
oped in the stock and ran from the point of
bifurcation to one of the slots housing the
ends of the handle strap. A third iron strap