Pickaxe the tool. A pickaxe handle (sometimes called a "pickhandle" or "pick helve") without the head is sometimes used, often unofficially, as a baton: for example it is officially sometimes used as a baton in the British Army. In "The Grapes of Wrath" by John Steinbeck, pick handles featured prominently as a weapon used against the migrant farmers. A normal pickaxe handle is made of ash or hickory wood and is about three feet long and weighs about 2.5 pounds. British Army pickaxe handles must, by regulation, be exactly three feet long, for use in measuring in the field. New variant
Staveley Mill Yard was built by the mill owners to regulate the flow of the river for the benefit of mills and other industries downstream. A large water wheel powered the line shafting (some of which can be seen upstairs in Wilf’s Café) and under the balcony can be seen where the water was drawn off above the weir and channelled along the race, through an archway into the building to power the wheel. In 1902 the water-wheel was replaced by a turbine. In the 20th century, The Staveley Wood Turning Co. Ltd. switched much of its production into tool handles and was