Mouseman of Kilburn

Now I'm sure you will all be thinking that's a very strange blog post title especially for this time of year when most people are totally wrapped up in the Christmas preparations, but completely leaving aside the Christmas theme I just wanted to do a little post about Robert Thompson, otherwise known as the Mouseman of Kilburn. He was so called because he was a master carpenter and his trademark (after 1920) was a little mouse carved into whichever piece of furniture he was working on. I know it might sound a bit of a random subject but the reason I thought of it was because in the cottage we stayed in the other weekend there were 5 different pieces of his work.

This is the wall cabinet that was in the little hallway. There were also mice carved on the wooden hearth of the fireplace, the bookcase, the coat hanger rail and on the outside post box. There was a little book about the mouseman and his life on the bookshelf, itself bearing one of the little mice.Apparently he was working on a piece of furniture for a church when one of his fellow crafters commented that 'they were all as poor as church mice' and on hearing that he then went on to carve the first mouse. After the first one,nearly every other piece of his work had a similar tell tale mouse carved into it.It became a sign of quality and although he died in 1955, to this day his workshop is still in existence, run now by his descendants and it's still possible to buy pieces of furniture complete with mouse. My mum remembers seeing mice carved into the pews of Pinderfields hospital chapel years ago,but since the chapel is no longer there I'm not sure what happened to them. Little O, who came to visit while we were in the cottage was fascinated by the little mouse on the wooden hearth and so was I!  I expect in a couple of hundred years these will become as famous as a piece of Chippendale furniture. I don't suppose any of you possess one do you?