COAL-HOLE DESIGNS

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LXIII, 25 July 1929, Page 7

COAL-HOLE DESIGNS

DOCTOR'S QUAINT. HOBBY MANY SKETCHES MADE " One of the most curious of hobbies must be that of collecting the designs oi London coal-shoot covers, which was practised by 90-ycar-old Dr. Shephard Taylor, of Edgefield, Mcltou Constable, Norfolk. Over sixty years ago as a young medical student in London, Dr. Taylor was impressed by the infinite variety and beauty of the coal-shoot covers in the pavement on which thousands of persons walk daily without giving them a second thought. He discovered and sketched over 150 different varieties, which have now been placed on record in a booklet named 'Opercula," published by "Tho Ironmonger." _ .. Opercula is tho more euphonious name selected by Dr. Taylor for his coalplates, and", according to .the dictionary meaning, it is "a cover or lid; the plate over the entrance of a shell . . ." "Tho coal-hole opercula," writes Dr. Taylor, "'were all sketched by me in tho year 1863 when a medical student ut King's College Hospital, London, when that institution was in Portugal street, in the vicinity of tho Strand. "t was a lodger, at- the time, in Argyle street, near King's Cross, in which district my attention was first drawn lei the great variety of doviccs on the opercula, and I determined to try and reproduce them on paper. "My eyes got so accustomed to the work that I could immediately recognise the smallest difference between any two opercula, without comparing one with the other, and I might have added to my series had I'remained longer in London." Dr. Taylor, who was in Berlin during tho Franco-Gorman war. was formerly medical.officer of health for Cromer.