panelled throughout to front and back, the top cupboard accessible via three smaller doors, main cabinet with large wrought iron hooks, the seat with drawers below. Primarily constructed in figured field-grown ash, some other native hedgerow timber species present. Fantastically figured and patinated throughout.

Whilst such high backed settles are traditionally associated with the hanging and curing of bacon, this is somewhat disputed – David Knell, in his book English Country Furniture 1500-1900 sights this as bucolic fantasy, stating, ‘…it seems unlikely that that was invariably their purpose and the storage of outdoor clothing presents itself as an obvious, if more mundane, alternative.’ What is accepted is the fact that settles, those with hanging space and those without, were used as room dividers. With typical West Country farmhouses’ principle living rooms (invariably the kitchen) having a door directly to the outside, such pieces, when placed between this and the fire provided a screen from the draughts, creating a cosy and warm environment around the hearth.

Such pieces of furniture have been found exclusively in the West Country and Wales and one of the tell-tale signs is the use of sledge feet, generally associated with furniture from Somerset and Devon.

For further reading see Gabriel Olive, Farm and Cottage Furniture in the West Country, The Regional Furniture Society, 2002.