What are these? Machinery or milling equipment?

[walamai]

Friends of mine have recently bought a ~1600's cottage in Somerset and I was visiting on the weekend. Just wondering if anyone knows what these things are?

I'm guessing they'd be on some sort of shaft, and the offset implies some sort of cam lobe perhaps?

There is no machinery on the property at all. There are a few sheds and stables, but nothing obviously industrial. There is a lime kiln (last photo) which apparently dates from a similar era to the house but that's about the only 'clue'!

ETA: They are approximately 35cm in diameter.

[KAgantua]

Was the site originally owned by Namco?

[walamai]

KAgantua said:

Was the site originally owned by Namco?

Hah, I'm guessing they pre-date the 1980's. I won't rule out fossilised video game character until there is a better guess though.

[buggalugs]

Maybe weights, the slot being to allow them to be added and removed from a vertically hanging rope or cable or hanger. Don't think you would use metal bits like that in a kiln?

eta, like this but bigger https://www.countyscales.co.uk/slotted-iron-weight...

[jfdi]

Looks like very large version of these

Edit : beaten to it.

[walamai]

buggalugs said:

Maybe weights, the slot being to allow them to be added and removed from a vertically hanging rope or cable or hanger. Don't think you would use metal bits like that in a kiln?

eta, like this but bigger https://www.countyscales.co.uk/slotted-iron-weight...

Those look like a likely candidate, thanks. The offset feature on them might just be a casting artefact.

I think you're right about the kiln, might be a red herring in this context. Having done a bit of reading since posting this I think it's unlikely to be anywhere near as old as the house either.

Not from my friends place, but a photo of a sign I found online...

[Scrump]

walamai said:

Those look like a likely candidate, thanks. The offset feature on them might just be a casting artefact.

If they are weights then the offset feature will have a similar recess on the underside. This would allow them to be stacked without sliding off (the base of the scales having a similar raised feature to locate the lowest weight.)

[walamai]

Scrump said:

If they are weights then the offset feature will have a similar recess on the underside. This would allow them to be stacked without sliding off (the base of the scales having a similar raised feature to locate the lowest weight.)

That makes sense. I'm going to mark this as 'solved'. Thanks buggalugs and jfdi as well.

[Spare tyre]

They are Pac-Man prototypes

[glenrobbo]

walamai said:

Scrump said:

If they are weights then the offset feature will have a similar recess on the underside. This would allow them to be stacked without sliding off (the base of the scales having a similar raised feature to locate the lowest weight.)

That makes sense. I'm going to mark this as 'solved'. Thanks buggalugs and jfdi as well.

Balance weights.
My first thoughts as well, I used similar working on a farm many years ago ( late 50s) when filling sacks of grain in the barn from a hopper, using a set of balance scales.

[GliderRider]

Balance weights was my first thought. Were there any windmills nearby? As I recall, windmills used something like a balance to adjust the governor and may have used similar weights on that.

[walamai]

No windmills around, but with the lime kiln being there I can imagine the could have been used for weighing materials related to that.