So, what is it?
THEORIES over a mystery object, dredged from the bed of the old Charnwood canal, near Nanpanta, have been coming in
Last week we published a letter from DCGW, of Nanpantan, who had saved the object from a spoil heap.
He wrote: “The recent changes in Snell’s Nook Lane have obliterated much of the evidence of the old Charnwood canal and the Forest Line narrow gauge railway which ran from The Priory to the wharf in the town centre.
Before the close boarded fence was erected, I stood on the public footpath – the former towpath – and watched a JCB gouge bucketfuls of clay from the bed of the canal and dump its load on a spoil heap.
An object appeared and the driver invited me to take it because it would only be reburied the next day.
Cleaning it up, I found a heavy cast iron object with the larger circle 8 inches in diameter.”
Despite his best efforts to identify it he was at a loss and so contacted the Echo to see if readers could suggest a use.
Former motor mechanic Brian Sharp was just one reader to answer the call, and he says that the object is not quite so exotic or old as might have been hoped.
Brian, 85, is sure that it is a front hub and disc brake and not only that he thinks he can pinpoint the very make of car - a Mini.
The former Archie Moss and Shipsides mechanic said that the four studs and dimensions give it away adding that you can also see where the front drive shaft went.
The Echo notified DCGW of course and he has replied.
“Once again, your reader shows the importance of the press! If it were a medical matter I would ask for a second opinion, but if an experienced motor mechanic declares it to be part of a mini, I am happy to accept that.
“A footnote below adds to the story. “Years ago, The Echo reported that I had dug up a clip of live rifle ammo in my garden. This had been pilfered from one of the wartime munition stores alongside Snell’s Nook Lane. The culprit, now in his seventies, confessed to me that he had thrown the ammo into my garden on his way home. I wish now that I had kept one round to go with the whisky in the library!”
DCGW