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Aldous's Copper Rain Chain
Aldous's Copper Rain Chain
Dispatched within 1–2 working days
90-day money-back guarantee
Free UK delivery with tracking
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Aldous's Copper Rain Chain
Seven Copper Cups, Tuned by Hand in a Barn in Lostwithiel, Cornwall
Aldous Penhale, 71. He put up gutters and downpipes across mid-Cornwall for fifty years. In 2016 he took the downpipe off his own cottage, hammered his wife seven copper tulip cups and found out the rain could sound like a little stream. These are the last chains he will ever tune.
“Come and listen, your gutter sounds like a stream.”
Merryn Penhale · at the kitchen window, April 2016Everything That Arrives at Your Door
1 Copper Rain Chain
120 cm (47 in) long, seven hand-tuned copper tulip cups, each hung on twin side chains.
1 Hanging Hook
Already on the top link. Hooks into a gutter outlet, a porch beam or a pergola — no tools needed for most spots.
90-Day Returns
If it isn’t right on your porch, send it back within 90 days for a full refund. One email does it.
Six Things a DIY-Shop Rain Chain Doesn’t Have
Seven Cups, Checked on a Tuner
Every cup is hammered and checked on a tuner, so the faint ring you hear now and then is soft and pleasant. Most of the time you hear a gentle stream running down the chain.
Seven Different Wall Thicknesses
Each cup is planished to its own wall thickness until it rings clean when a drop lands. No two cups on a chain are the same.
Solid Copper
Copper cups with a brushed antique-bronze finish. Copper doesn’t rust away in wet weather the way coated steel does.
Twin-Chain Hangers
Each cup hangs from two side chains in a V, so it stays level, catches the water dead centre and doesn’t twist and spill in the wind.
A Whisper Instead of a Drum
In a downpour the cups fill and the water runs cup to cup in clean ribbons, without the hollow drumming and gurgling of a downpipe.
A Drink for Birds and Bees
Let the bottom cup run into a pot of river pebbles. The stones stay wet for days — robins and blue tits bathe there, bees land and drink.
An Ordinary Downpipe vs. Aldous’s Rain Chain
| Downpipe | Aldous’s Chain | |
|---|---|---|
| Sound | Hollow drumming and gurgling, loudest at night | A soft stream-like trickle, now and then a quiet plink |
| Look | A grey plastic pipe on the corner of the house | Seven copper tulips you can watch the rain walk down |
| Water on your beds | One hard jet that digs a trench | Slowed cup by cup, settles into pebbles or a barrel |
| Birds and bees | Nothing for them | A wet pebble pot they visit for days after rain |
| Hanging it | Brackets, screws, elbows, a ladder | Unhook the downpipe, hook on the chain |
Made by Hand in Lostwithiel, Cornwall
Every cup on this chain started as a flat copper offcut on Aldous’s bench. He shapes the four petals over a steel stake, then takes the wall down a fraction of a millimetre at a time with a small planishing hammer, reading the thickness through his fingertips and checking each cup on a tuner and against his father’s old chrome pitch pipe. Every chain takes him about twelve hours at the bench.
His hands have gone numb in the cold after fifty-two years of tin snips and wet slates, and he can’t feel the copper the way tuning demands. The 180 chains in this batch are the last he tuned himself. He is letting them go for about what the copper and the postage cost him, because he would rather hear they’re hanging where it rains than sitting in a warehouse.
— AldousThree Steps, About Five Minutes
- Pick the spot. A gutter outlet where you’d normally have a downpipe, or the edge of a porch beam, overhang or pergola where rain runs off.
- Hook it on. Hang the top hook from the outlet or a screw hook in the beam. The chain hangs straight on its own.
- Give it somewhere to land. A planter, a water butt or a wide pot of river pebbles under the last cup. In windy spots, tie the last link to a stake.
“A downpipe puts a whole roof’s worth of water into one hole in the ground. A chain lets it come down slowly and soak in. And a pot of wet stones underneath is one of the best little water stations you can give birds and bees — shallow, safe, with somewhere to land.”
Hilda Rowse · garden writer and RHS-trained horticulturist, TruroWho It’s For
Five Things You Can Count On
- Seven hand-tuned copper cups on twin side chains
- Dispatched within 1–2 working days
- Hook included, ready to hang
- Copper that won’t rust away in the weather
- 90-day money-back guarantee
90-Day Money-Back Guarantee
Hang it, wait for the first proper rain and listen. If it isn’t what you hoped for, send it back within 90 days for a full refund. No forms, no fuss — one email to our support team sorts it out.
Living With It Outside
The chain is made to stay out all year. Copper weathers slowly and gains character over time; if you prefer the original finish, wipe it with a soft dry cloth now and then. If leaves collect in the top cup, tip them out once a year.
In a spot with strong wind, anchor the last link to a stake or the handle of a water butt. In a hard frost, lift the chain off its hook for a few weeks so ice can’t weigh on your gutter. If it barely rains where you live, a slow watering can or a garden hose held over the top cup gets the chain trickling just the same.
Product Specifications
| Length | 120 cm (47 in) including hook |
| Cups | 7 tulip cups, approx. 6.5 cm across |
| Cup material | Copper, brushed antique-bronze finish |
| Chain | Dark-finish figure-eight links, twin side chains per cup |
| Hanging | Top hook included — gutter outlet, beam, overhang or pergola |
| Tuning | Every cup checked on a tuner |
| Made by | Aldous Penhale, Lostwithiel, Cornwall |
| Shipping | Dispatched within 1–2 working days |
| Returns | 90 days, full refund |
The Final Series
The Final Series
Some things are made by one pair of hands, for decades, and then never again.
The Final Series is the last work of craftspeople who are putting down their tools. No factory, no successor, no second batch.
Just the final pieces from their workshops, each one shaped by a lifetime of getting it right.
When they're gone, they're gone.
Free UK Delivery
Free UK Delivery
Free delivery across the UK
- Dispatched within 1–2 working days, tracked delivery
- Every chain is packed by hand in Aldous’s workshop near Lostwithiel
- Length: 120 cm (47 in), 7 copper tulip cups, approx. 6.5 cm across, hanging hook included
- Made to live outside all year
- 90-day money-back guarantee — just email info@cedarandtinco.com
Frequently Asked Questions
Got a question? Here’s how to reach us.
Got a question? Here’s how to reach us.
Email us anytime at info@cedarandtinco.com. We answer Monday to Friday 9am–5pm and Saturday mornings 10am–1pm UK time – whether it’s about your order, a present, or just to say hello to Aldous.
Can I return it if it’s not for me?
Can I return it if it’s not for me?
Of course. 90-day money-back guarantee. Hang it, wait for the first proper rain and listen – and if it isn’t right for you, email info@cedarandtinco.com within 90 days for a full refund. No forms, no fuss.
How is it made?
How is it made?
Aldous shapes every copper tulip cup by hand over a steel stake in the granite barn behind his cottage near Lostwithiel, Cornwall, then thins each cup wall with a small planishing hammer until it rings clean, then checks every cup on a tuner. Seven cups, twin side chains on every cup, about twelve hours of work in every chain. This is his last batch.