Tewkesbury whizzing stick bullroarer

Whizzing stick

Source term: Bullroarer

Whizzing stick: the blade's English folk name, with 'buzzer' recorded as an alternative.

Thirteen holes burnt clean through its face and both edges carved into deep waves make the Tewkesbury blade the showiest of the English folk whirlers Miss Ogden of Oxford's High Street gave the Pitt Rivers Museum in 1902 — someone inked the town's name straight onto the wood. A single cord still hangs knotted through its end, and the museum keeps its plain folk name too: whizzing stick.

Wooden 'Bullroarer' with 13 holes burnt into it and deeply indented sides.

Pitt Rivers Museum 1902.51.6

Particulars

Object

Carved wooden slat, 145 x 45 mm, with deeply indented sides, thirteen burnt holes across the face, and a single cord knotted through the suspension end.

Function

Boys' toy; its other name, buzzer, is the one Haddon heard in Bedfordshire and Norfolk.