Vintage Farm tools and milk churns are lucrative treasure now

If like most farmers, you have spent your life heaving milk churns from one spot to another in the yard or using them to prop open door and as a good place to place the paint can when painting or the sandwiches when eating, then you will be surprised to know that the humble milk churn is now worth money.  A good old aluminium milk can is worth upwards of £90.  The milk cans have been known to feature as flower holders at weddings, as garden decorations and even as props in plays and musicals.  While you get your head around the fact that those humble and obsolete creamery cans are more valuable than you thought, you might want to take a look around the yard and see what else is someone else’s treasure.  Nostalgia for the past is driving up the price and the popularity of farm memorabilia and antiques.

Old farm tools

There is a market for your antique and vintage farm tools, carts and even the old, galvanised bucket. Everything from stone grinders to hand sickles can be sold on sites like Done Deal, Etsy or through a local antique dealer.  A vintage jute potato sack sold on Ebay for £15.00 recently and an old-style hay knife fetched the princely sum of £45.00. If you have an old butter churn, you can expect to fetch over a £150.00 from a keen collector Even vintage tins that once held molasses, baking powder or tea can be sold for a few pounds.      It seems that everything from an antique steam thresher to a hay fork has added nostalgic value and is coveted by a collector somewhere.  The link to the past and the nostalgic feelings that is evoked by these older items is easily understood, as we all have a misty-eyed memory of the days gone by when everything seemed simpler.  People worked hard but there may have been more time to share a cup of tea and a chat. The countryside was a place of shared work, quieter days and a gentle closeness with nature.  It may well be that the purchasing of items from our childhood days helps to remind us of happy times.

Reconnecting with the past.  The values, skills and customs

A visit to the Ulster Folk Museum over in Omagh is a great day out for all the family and is especially interesting for the farming folk. There are many fine examples of old farm machinery and hand tools here.  Standing in the kitchen of a whitewashed Ulster farmhouse which looks unchanged for 100 years brings a reconnection to the past and a great value for the skills and customs that were part of everyday life.  From blacksmithing to breadmaking, there is something for everyone.  Of course, the museum does tell the story of three generations of emigration but within this the daily life of rural farming Ulster is displayed really well.   From spinning wheels to boxty making.   A wee jaunt here will give you a new appreciation for the past and for any of the older things you might have lying round the sheds from the generations that went before.   Imagine how surprised your grandmother would be to learn that her beloved kitchen dresser was now worth over a thousand pounds. 

One Man’s Junk….

It may be difficult to know which of your rusty, dusty and ancient treasure is valuable and which is just junk. Niall Mullen, Vice President of Irish Antique Dealers Association, which represents 50 antique dealers in Ireland, has this to say on the Done Deal.ie website.  ‘Every family has something that has been handed down through generations and told is of value. Go on the internet and try to cross reference it. The internet might give you the value you want if a painting is signed or if it’s a piece of furniture etc. and you can identify it.’       Once you have valued it you may be looking at it with fresh and more appreciative yes. Old buckets, old suitcases and even a vintage flour sieve all seem to have a resale value if you can find the right market. But maybe there is no price to be put on the past.  Selling off our memories may be something we might regret later.   It might just be time to dust off these heirlooms and fill the churns with geraniums , the buckets with pansies and treasure the past for ourselves.