How to strengthen a four-poster bed

[southwood3]

We've just returned from a New Years eve overnight stay at a hotel in Harrogate. We were pleased to be given a room with a four-poster bed. It became apparent pretty quickly that the bed had been subjected to some fairly energetic activity in the past and had been repaired rather crudely by someone with an affection for pieces of 4 X 2 blocks of wood, hinges and screws! Each of the four upper joints had been reinforced with a block of wood, a metal bracket and no less than 11 screws. The four lower joints were each reinforced with a wooden block and seven screws plus a brass hinge. And just to make sure it was earthquake-proof, the headboard was screwed to the wall. Who ever did this work really meant business. Enjoy the pics!

If you look closely you can see one of the blocks in the top corner.

Image1106.jpg (188.26 KiB) Viewed 7284 times

The top repair:

Image1089.jpg (179.99 KiB) Viewed 7284 times

The bottom repair:

Image1104.jpg (152.83 KiB) Viewed 7284 times

[ultimatehandyman]

Ha Ha

Just had a stressful few hours trying to fix the forum and that has really cheered me up

[southwood3]

Ha Ha

Just had a stressful few hours trying to fix the forum and that has really cheered me up

Probably as stressful as I found posting photos for the first time..........too many pixels

[dave.m]

The upper repair is definitely a Victorian attempt at restoration, as is shown by the blacksmith manufactured cross head(?) screws.
The wood is obviously from Sherwood Forrest at about the time of that rascal, Robin Hood, as is evident by the damage caused by his miscreant gang of original 'Hoodies' firing off arrows at the poor tree.
The shiney T bracket is a poor attempt to disguise the bed owners silver plate and to hide it in case the aforementioned Mr Hood came calling.

The lower picture shows the more modern Elizabethan II repairs.
Following repairs using the swinging hinge principle, whereby a hinge was installed to allow the bed bottom to swing open and out of the way whilst the bed was put to reproductive use. It was later decided that to stop the people from slipping out of the bottom of the bed whilst trying to reproduce, some form of blocking mechanism had to be used to stop the bottom swinging open. So the big block was installed and following tests, was decided to be made a permanent feature of such beds.

Hope that explains it from an historic point of view.

dave