Blacksmith's traveller

This was used to measure the circumference of cartwheels when they were brought to the smithy to be hooped with iron.   The Royal Burgh of Sanquhar had five Incorporated Trades, weavers, smiths, squaremen (joiners and masons), tailors and shoemakers. In 1835 the minister of the parish wrote,   'The trade carried on in it is chiefly the weaving and sewing of muslin; other articles made and sold are mostly for the use of the inhabitants... and consequently the trade in them is very limited.'   It was the work of these trades which clothed, housed and equipped generations of local people.