COMPLETED Does anyone know what this jar is for?

[ShaunJ]

It stands about 15" high and there is a hole in the centre of the lid. Any guesses?

[mosiefish]

I think it is a butter churn.

Mo

[ShaunJ]

Thanks Mo that's very helpful. Now that I know  (with your help) what it is, I was able to find this very similar item that sold on ebay: http://tinyurl.com/pk9lby5

[trystan]

I'm guessing then that the lower half is porous on purpose, so the water evaporating from it would then keep the butter colder.

I think I saw somewhere that they used to use porous tiles on the floor of a buttery for a similar reason (they'd throw water on it and let it evaporate).

Trystan

[ShaunJ]

I think it probably belonged to my grandmother who was a farmer's daughter from Donegal. I'll give it a clean and see how it looks without the dust and the paint spots!

[TLB]

My grandmother had one of these jars, it was indeed used for butter and was put on the tables at mealtimes , no butter dish. She also had another ,but I can't remember what it was use for, but vaguely think it was used for dripping.

[John915]

Good afternoon,

It would have originally had some form of paddle or plunger device coming out of the hole. This was used to actually churn the milk into butter. Hard work for kids but we used to do it for mum now and then.

https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=butter+churns&rls=com.microsoft:en-GB:IE-SearchBox&rlz=1I7ASUT_enGB435GB435&tbm=isch&tbo=u&source=univ&sa=X&ei=dVssU_HbHYiThgf5_YFg&ved=0CEoQsAQ&biw=1279&bih=661

John915

[silaswall]

BBC 2 "Tudor Farm" Trystan.

[ShaunJ]

Many thanks to all who responded on this. I have now cleaned the churn up and it looks terrific.