Cradling the Clamp

It’s hard to imagine that we once relied on horses and bullocks to take bulky produce to market, move heavy loads, and travel long distances. Back then, saddlers were essential because they made and repaired harnesses and leatherwork. In the 1870s, John Priest (born c. 1851) was one of the first saddlers to open in […]

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Fast Fixtures

Making hand-wrought nails has always been a highly repetitive, laborious job. But these iron and copper nails from the earliest buildings at Maitland Gaol, completed by 1848, were made during a turning point, when nail making machines had recently been invented. Were Maitland Gaol’s nails made one-by one, pulled from a forge and shaped by […]

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