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Pole axe used to fell or stun animals when they were being slaughtered. One end used to fell the animal, the other a hook to move the carcass.
Pole axes were used to fell or stun animals when they were being slaughtered. One end of this wrought iron axe head is a hammer, used to fell the animal, and the other a hook, used to move the carcass about. The wooden handle is probably too short to be original.

1 pole-axe: wood, metal

MERL 'Catalogue index' card – 'Pole-axes were used to fell or stun animals when they were being slaughtered, usually by butchers. One part of the axe was usually of a hammer shape and the other a blade or hook. The animal was felled by a blow from the hammer end, a cane was then placed in the same end, which is hollow, and thrust along the backbone of the beast to kill it. The carcase could be moved about with the hook at the other end, the horns removed and perhaps the flesh cut up with the same part. // Nothing is known of the origin of this axe. It has a short wooden handle measuring 1 foot 7.5 inches, but this is probably not long enough to be the original. The wrought iron head measures 1 foot in length. It has a hook at one end and a hammer of tubular shape at the other. This is hollow for about .5 inch at the end. The head is wedged into the handle by two wooden wedges.', No Lavinia Smith No. recorded.

Wood, Metal

Rippon, Miss Dorothy May Lyddon (Agent)