The Bullroarer Atlas

MUS2026-167 - museum specimen

St Paul's Parish Norwich Buzzer bullroarers

United Kingdom - Norfolk - Norwich - St Paul's Parish - Europe

Play / practical

The first of two Norwich Buzzer bullroarers from St Paul's Parish, Pitt Rivers Museum 1913.24.2.
The first of two Norwich Buzzer bullroarers from St Paul's Parish, Pitt Rivers Museum 1913.24.2. Image source
Basque furrun-farra with its corded wooden blade.
Representative — not this record’s object. · Basque furrun-farra with its corded wooden blade. · CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 Image source
The second Norwich Buzzer bullroarer from St Paul's Parish, Pitt Rivers Museum 1913.24.3.
The second Norwich Buzzer bullroarer from St Paul's Parish, Pitt Rivers Museum 1913.24.3. Image source

Buzzer English

Source term: Bullroarer

Buzzer: Norfolk English bullroarer name in Haddon and the PRM records; not a pull-cord buzzer mechanism

Two long wooden blades from St Paul's Parish, Norwich, carried the plain English name Buzzer. Their broad, slightly irregular forms preserve a city toy otherwise known through Norfolk memories as the humming buzzer. Who owned this pair, or on what streets they sounded, went unrecorded.

where it is called “humming buzzer,” or simply “buzzer”

Haddon 1898:278
Object
Two long wooden terminal-cord slats, 240 x 41 mm and 233 x 54 mm; exact PRM photographs.
Function
Boys' toy — Haddon records the Norfolk 'humming buzzer,' or simply 'buzzer,' among the bullroarer toys of English boys, with specimens of his own from around the county.
Map confidence
high - St Paul's Parish representative anchor in Norwich; not a documented use site.
Source location
Page references

PRM 1913.24.2-.3; 1913 Annual Report; Haddon 1898:278

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