Object number
55/56/3
Description
Truss hoops, made of ash, were used by wet coopers to bring the staves of a cask together. The cask is first moistened and pressed over a cresset (a brazier used by coopers) until the sap has warmed and the staves become pliable. The cooper then drives down progressively smaller truss hoops over the staves, using a heavy hammer, until they are brought together. This truss hoop was used in the cooper's shop at H. & G. Simonds Ltd., known as the Bridge Street Brewery, in Reading.
Physical description
1 truss hoop: wood (ash); good condition
Label Text
Truss hoops. Truss hoops, made of ash, were used by wet coopers to bring the staves of a cask together. The cask is first moistened and pressed over a cresset (a brazier used by coopers) until the sap has warmed and the staves become pliable. The cooper then drives down progressively smaller truss hoops over the staves, using a heavy hammer, until they are brought together. This truss hoop was used in the cooper's shop at H. & G. Simonds Ltd., known as the Bridge Street Brewery, in Reading.7. Truss hoops. Ash wood truss hoops from the cooper's department of Reading company H. and G. Simonds Ltd. Simonds Ltd. were brewers, wine and spirit merchants and bottlers at The Brewery, Bridge Street, and maltsters in Fobney Street, Reading. Truss hoops were required for wet coopering, that is the making of tight casks for holding liquids such as wine. Unlike the wooden hoops used to bind casks and utensils in dry and white coopering, truss hoops were only a temporary fixing, being used by the wet cooper during the process when he raised, or assembled, a new cask. The hoops pictured are, (left) thirty-four centimetres in diameter, and (centre and right) thirty-nine centimetres. All three have splayed inner faces to correspond with the taper of the cask. 55/56/1-3
Archival history
MERL 'Catalogue index' card – 'The staves of beer casks are usually too thick and stiff to be drawn together by a windlass which is used for wire casks. The usual method is, therefore, to moisten the raised cask and press it over a cresset fire. The cooper then draws the staves together by driving down progressively smaller truss hoops until the staves are drawn together. These hoops are beaten down with a trussing adze and hammer weighing 4 lbs.', MERL 'Catalogue index' card – [Coopering – General Card, 55/37–55/56 and 55/66–55/88] – 'This set of Cooper's tools came to the Museum from the Cooper's Department, Messrs H & G Simonds The Brewery, Reading. Although the majority of the tools are modern, indeed some of them were never used, the tools are nevertheless the same as have been used for centuries by both urban and rural coopers.'
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External document
- L:\MERL\Objects\JISC 2012\60 series negatives\60_741.tif - High resolution image
