Hooray For Henry

The year 2017 didn’t start that well for me.

- Alison Harrington

I should have been enjoying the first few weeks of my retirement from teaching but, unfortunately, JM was admitted to hospital for the second time in three months. I thought that things could only get better but the night before my first outing of the year my mobile phone died on me. Then, returning from the dig, muddy and longing for a shower, I discovered that the hot water system had developed a fault! The day hadn’t even been particularly successful, my only coin being a Victoria penny, but at least I managed to retrieve one choice artefact in the shape of a silver thimble. It has the maker’s mark ‘C.H’ which I discovered is Charles Horner who founded a jewellery business in Halifax in 1860. Like all his thimbles it carries a Chester hallmark, but I am unable to read the date letter (Fig.1).

The following evening brought some news to cheer me up. At our monthly club meeting I saw the FLO for the first time since November and showed him a number of items that I was unable to identify myself. To my surprise he picked up one tiny object and said, “Ah, treasure.” The piece in question is only 1cm in diameter but is apparently a silver-gilt brooch/buckle of some kind, possibly  dating from the late medieval period. Due to its size, I had failed to notice that it has a design of intertwined snakes, with three heads and their scales all visible (Fig.2). Maybe I should have gone to Specsavers!