Bishop Bonner's Cottage Museum Dereham Heritage Trust
Search this site below
  • Welcome
  • Museum
    • Opening Times
    • Map
    • Volunteering
  • Dereham Heritage Trust
    • DHT Committee Members
    • DHT Constitution
    • DHT Privacy Policy
    • DHT Reports and AGM Minutes
  • Building History
  • News
  • Black History Month
  • Talks
  • Video Talks
  • DHT & DAS Newsletter Archive
  • History in the Making
  • John Craske - fisherman and artist, 1881-1943
  • William Hyde Wollaston - Dereham's Forgotten Scientist b1766
  • Jean De Narde - 1799
  • 19th Century Dereham
    • DEREHAM IN IT’S SETTING
    • MITFORD POPULATION BETWEEN 1801 AND 1871.
    • LIFE IN DEREHAM IN THE EARLY 1800s
    • LIFE IN DEREHAM IN LATER 1800’S
    • THE LOCAL BOARD OF EAST DEREHAM
    • ROADS
    • THE RAILWAYS
    • BREWERS AND BREWING IN DEREHAM
    • COMMERCIAL ROAD AND ITS ENVIRONS.
    • A PICTURE OF ETLING GREEN
    • DEREHAM SNAPSHOT OF 1881
    • HEALTH IN DEREHAM
    • NORFOLK MILITIA
  • World War One - Dereham
    • Dereham in Peace & War 1914
    • WW1 Red Cross Hospital
    • 1914 - 80 Army Horses Stampede through Dereham at Night
    • Doctor's Duigan's War
    • The Milk Brothers
    • The Eglen Brothers
    • WW1 motorcycle despatch rider from Dereham 1914
    • Christoper Gapp a Wheelwright at War
    • 1915 - Zeppelin Raid on Dereham
    • Songs of WW1
  • World War Two - Dereham, the Le Paradis Massacre
  • Archive and Collections
    • The Alan Cambridge Hobbies Collection
    • Bishop Bonner's Cottage 125 years of photographs
    • Horse Brass Collection
  • Dr. Augustus Jessopp - Arcadian Club Newsletter Archive
  • Dereham Books Reading List
  • Books on Dereham History Downloads
  • Duigan Family Archive
  • What to see in Dereham
  • Useful History Links
  • Join Our Emailing List

DAS Horse Brasses Collection

The use of horse brasses appears to have started in the West Country after the Napoleonic Wars and gradually spread. During the reign of Queen Victoria up to the start of the first world war they were much in evidence on fair days and other festivities. The largest number of brasses were made by casting between 1860 and 1890 up to 1914. In 1910 the largest producer of horse brasses ceased trading. 
A large number of the brass designs are traceable back to ancient lucky symbols, which have long associations with the horse and the worship of sun and moon.  It was a common belief that brasses gave protection from the effects of the 'evil eye'. They are a survival from the days when superstitions were rife and passed from generation to generation.  
The press cutting below dates from 1948 and records a visit to the Dereham saddler’s shop of Mr G D Cook who collected the horse brasses shown above. The prize brass of his collection dated 1848 is mentioned in the article and can be seen on the first row, right side, above. A photograph of the shop can be seen below, with a close-up detail showing horse brasses for sale in the window. An earlier photograph of the shop under different ownership is also shown below.
Picture
Picture
The shop of G D Cook, 21 Market Place, Dereham
Picture
Picture
Page from the Dereham Town Guide of 1905
Picture
Horse in harness with brasses working in the timber yard of Hobbies in Dereham in c1923.
Picture
Registered Educational Charity (No.1187140)
© Dereham Heritage Trust, unless stated otherwise.


Web Design by Sue Walker

  • TripAdvisor