⁉️ What the Friday is that?
Every Fortnight, we will be introducing you to an important artifact that is in our collection, here at The Castle Heritage Centre.
We’d love your thoughts, can you guess what it is, how it was used? We’ll follow it up with the answer as we explore another, let’s see how many of you got it!
➡️ This week’s artifact is a headlight blackout cover, used during the second world war. Here’s a bit of history:
A World War II blackout headlight cover was a device used to mask the lights of a car during a “brownout” when streetlights were dimmed to deter air raids. Blackout headlight covers could be made from a variety of materials, including metal, canvas, and artificial leather. They were typically circular and back-mounted, with a black finish and a hooded front cover that concealed a strip of glass. During WWII a night-time blackout was instituted, policed by ARP wardens. Virtually all street lights were switched off, while those left burning were dimmed and shielded to deflect their light downward. Traffic lights and vehicle headlights were fitted with slotted covers to deflect their beam down to the floor.
Did you guess correctly? Well done, we had some brilliant answers, some correct, some close and some, well, just a bit random, but it made us giggle!
Look out for the next one and see if you can guess what this one is?
Did you know we hold an inspirational collection of documents and artifacts that play an important role in Bude, Stratton and the surrounding parishes rich heritage. You can also visit us seven days a week as we are open from 10am every day (including bank holidays).
