I was walking to the bank, and for once the whole of the Grande Rue wasn't lined with parked cars. This gave me an opportunity to look at the facades of the empty shops (most now private residences) and I noticed that no.6 had a small feature at about chest height. (On the left of this photo.)
A closer look revealed that it was a public barometer, now not working (unless we were to get variable weather the next day, which we didnt).
The shop was once (in the late 19th century) a clock shop, but I can find no clear photo showing the shop as it was.It is interesting that the barometer is at chest height - many items I would expect to be at eye level are at chest height. Along with the height of our doors, this is an indication of how short the people of Preuilly used to be.
Simon
2 comments:
Maybe the footpath was lower or did not exist years ago.
Could be that the footpaths were lower, but there certainly were footpaths in the late C19th according to some old photos we have seen. Even now there are a lot of what I would consider very short people in Preuilly.
Some of the older inhabitants would struggle to make 5' (1.52metres)
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