Victorian soil vent pipe grille - tiny key attached??

[Francfalco]

Hi all,

Painting the front area of my Victorian terrace house over the weekend, and a perfect time to replace the above grille that has been broken for years.

However, when i finally managed to dig through the rusted screws and get it off i noticed behind the grille was a tiny little key attached to the back of the grille?

My 2 small children said it belongs to the houses 'Borrowers' and i should put it back immediately!, but i'm sure there is another real world explanation, but for the life of me i have no idea?

Anyone here have any thoughts, i'm really intrigued!

On a side note, i'm sure you can buy replacement grilles, but i've just bought a desktop 3D printer and as a little project i'm going to model this piece and print a replacement!

Cheers

Vent grille tiny key

• Francfalco
• 10 Nov 2014
• 2

Vent grille

• Francfalco
• 10 Nov 2014
• 2

 

[footprints]

Fascinating! Reckon your kids might be right!

Only suggestion is perhaps it was supplied with some kind of security screw and a key to operate them was attached, but not used.

 

[Francfalco]

Fascinating it is!

Its just such a strange thing to have behind the grille - makes no sense to me?

Maybe some quaint Victorian thing?

Any historians out there?

 

[Nige F]

For the answer - see the post in GD .