Strange levers both sides of fireplace

StephSCO

Hi I have tried searching for an answer to this on Google but cannot find anything, my wife and I are purchasing a 1870's house in Co. Donegal and noticed strange levers both sides of the fireplaces in two rooms.

When you slide the lever up you can hear what sounds like a wire moving behind the wall, I first thought it could be to call the servants, as the house has a seperate servants quarters; however I cannot find any bells or other devices.

I was hoping someone may have come across these before and shed some light on the subject for us, we are going to keep them as we want to keep the house as period as possible and since these levers look extremely old it makes sense to keep them in place.

Sadly I cannot post a photo as I am a new member.

Bonzo Delaney

They were for to call the servants alright
They were usually linked back to a bell in the servants quaters
That line must of been severed or broke at some stage I'd imagine the two bells were each for a different type of service

StephSCO

Bonzo Delaney wrote: »

They were for to call the servants alright
They were usually linked back to a bell in the servants quaters
That line must of been severed or broke at some stage I'd imagine the two bells were each for a different type of service

Thanks for the reply, I had read it may have been to open flaps for the chimney but the wire behind the wall does not sound heavy enough to pull a flap inside the chimney. We have visited a lot of period houses that have bells and other levers but they were normally like a pull down type, these have a round marble centre with a lever that only moves around 4 inches up or down.

Would be great to have them working as we want to keep as much detail as possible, but I would assume it would require pulling up the floorboards upstairs and even if we could we would have no way of knowing where the bells would have been as the servant quarters have been converted in to a garage.

Thanks again.

Bonzo Delaney

Could be for the fire place either as the servants bell was generally a pulley system then in later years with electrification a type of doorbell was used
I guess if you do acquire the house take up a few boards and trace the wires back
The bells are probably long gone is there any other existing bell system in the house

StephSCO

Bonzo Delaney wrote: »

Could be for the fire place either as the servants bell was generally a pulley system then in later years with electrification a type of doorbell was used
I guess if you do acquire the house take up a few boards and trace the wires back
The bells are probably long gone is there any other existing bell system in the house

No signs of any bells, the wire sounds like it goes up the wall towards upstairs. I thought it strange that one room has 2, either side of the fireplace and the other room has 1.

If it were for the chimney then surely both rooms would have 2? The room with 1 is slightly smaller which I would think may only need one bell. Wish I could post a photo of what they look like.

Our offer has been accepted on the house so it's a case of waiting now for contracts to be signed and so on. Looking at around mid to end of January for keys in our hands.

Bonzo Delaney

StephSCO wrote: »

No signs of any bells, the wire sounds like it goes up the wall towards upstairs. I thought it strange that one room has 2, either side of the fireplace and the other room has 1.

If it were for the chimney then surely both rooms would have 2? The room with 1 is slightly smaller which I would think may only need one bell. Wish I could post a photo of what they look like.

Our offer has been accepted on the house so it's a case of waiting now for contracts to be signed and so on. Looking at around mid to end of January for keys in our hands.

Well I'll look forward to end of January to find out what they were for
Best of luck with the house.