Ickleton Cambridgeshire Buzzer bullroarer

Buzzer

Source term: Bullroarer

Buzzer: the local name inked on the board, after the noise it makes when whirled.

A thick, pointed board lined with small sawteeth along both edges, its cord still knotted through a hole at one end, was collected at Ickleton in Cambridgeshire and marked in ink with its local name: 'Buzzer.' That name cuts against what Alfred Haddon heard elsewhere in the same county, where the same whirled toy was simply a 'bull' and its edges were left plain. One county, two names, two finishes.

'Buzzer'. Ickleton. Cambs.

MAA 1922.384, handwritten ink marking (Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology, Cambridge)

Particulars

Object

Thick, sub-rectangular wooden board, 217 x 42 x 9 mm, with triangular serrations along both long edges; a knotted cord passes through a hole at the pointed end, the opposite end flat.

Function

Boys' toy — Haddon's Cambridgeshire informants knew the instrument as the 'bull'; this Ickleton blade, ink-labelled Buzzer, is the same schoolboy toy under a neighbouring name.