The Bullroarer Atlas

MUS2026-119 - museum specimen

English folk (Suffolk)

United Kingdom - Suffolk, England - Europe - British Isles

Play / practical

Bungay bullroarer cut from recycled wood, with its terminal cord, Pitt Rivers Museum 1894.42.1.
Bungay bullroarer cut from recycled wood, with its terminal cord, Pitt Rivers Museum 1894.42.1. Pitt Rivers Museum, University of Oxford (1894.42.1) Image source
Wooden bull roarer from Suffolk, England, collected by folklorist Edward Lovett — National Museum of American History DL.211913.
Wooden bull roarer from Suffolk, England, collected by folklorist Edward Lovett — National Museum of American History DL.211913. National Museum of American History, Smithsonian Institution (DL.211913) Image source

Source term: bull-roarer

While Victorian anthropologists compared the secret bullroarers of Australia and New Guinea, the same instrument still rattled through English childhood. This Suffolk example is a six-and-a-half-inch wooden blade with its rope wound neatly around it, ready to be carried in a pocket and unwound for play.

Object
English folk bullroarers from Suffolk: NMAH DL.211913 and PRM 1894.42.1 from Bungay, a notched recycled-wood slat with terminal cord.
Function
English children’s folk toy.
Map confidence
medium - Suffolk county-level anchor; no parish recorded
Source location
NMAH DL.211913; PRM 1894.42.1; Pitt Rivers 1894 annual report

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