The Bullroarer Atlas

MUS2026-180 - museum specimen

Woodbastwick Norfolk bullroarer

United Kingdom - Norfolk - Woodbastwick - Europe

Play / practical

Haddon's fig. 38 no. 7 — cord lashed into the notch-waist, trapezoid teeth down both edges: very likely this board.
Haddon's fig. 38 no. 7 — cord lashed into the notch-waist, trapezoid teeth down both edges: very likely this board. · Public domain Image source
Haddon's full plate of bullroarers from the British Islands.
Representative — not this record’s object. · Haddon's full plate of bullroarers from the British Islands. · Public domain Image source

Buzzer English

Source term: Bullroarer

Buzzer: Norfolk English bullroarer name per Haddon 1898:278; inferred here from county-wide usage and the shared 1922 Haddon donation series, not from a label on this specimen

Large trapezoid teeth cut deep into both edges of this board, and its bundled cord is lashed into notches rather than threaded through a drilled hole -- a sturdier rig than its Norfolk neighbors. A pencil mark on the wood reads only 'Woodbastwick,' the Broadland village near Wroxham that gave it its name. Its shape and cordage sit squarely within Norfolk's buzzer tradition, the same whirled toy children spun from Hemsby to Norwich to make a summer noise. Haddon engraved his Norfolk buzzers for The Study of Man in 1898 — and the seventh figure on his plate, cord lashed into its notch-waist, is very likely this very board.

Woodbastwick. Norfolk.

MAA 1922.387, pencil marking (Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology, Cambridge)
Object
Rectangular wooden board with a pointed-oval cross-section, 256 x 35 mm, with large trapezoid serrations along both long edges; a bundled cord is lashed into notches at one end rather than through a drilled hole; exact MAA photograph permission-gated.
Function
Boys' toy — Haddon records the Norfolk 'humming buzzer' among the bullroarer toys of English boys; this Woodbastwick board very likely sits in his own figured series.
Map confidence
high - Woodbastwick village-center anchor matching MAA provenance; not a documented use site.
Source location
Page references

MAA 1922.387; MAA record cites Haddon 1908 (recte 1898), The Study of Man, with no specific plate or figure number; fig. 38 no. 7 identified as very likely this board (2026-07-21 morphology pass)

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