14 DECEMBER 1951, Page 15

Sickle-Making

In the Christmas number of The Derbyshire Countryside, Sir Osbert Sitwell refers to sickles being still made at Renisbaw for export to Chile and Peru. Before handing over my "bygones" to Reading University, I had several sickles, one a woman's, thinner in the half-moon blade and lighter in weight than the men's. They cut the ears from_ the straw (as seen in the Luttrell Psalter) and go back (in flint) to 2000 B.C. in England.