Report of the Portable Antiquities Scheme 2019

The work of the Portable Antiquities Scheme (PAS) has been highlighted in this journal since 2005 and an introduction to the organisation can be found in previous reports. In 2019, 16,319 objects dating to the post-medieval and modern periods were recorded by the PAS in 13,454 records. This represented 20% of all objects recorded; a 9% increase in objects but a slight decrease in proportion from 2018, reflecting more recording in general. The major functional categories (calculated by object) were currency (coins and tokens) (42%), dress accessories (21%), arms and armour (6%), trade equipment (including jettons) (9%), vessels (4%), animal (including equestrian) equipment (3%), household fittings (4%), tools and utensils (2%), and entertainment and leisure (2%). In the report for 2015 we noted a change in guidance whereby the PAS was being more selective in recording material dateable after 1540, and the reasons for it. Of course, more recent artefacts of local importance continue to be recorded by the Finds Liaison Officers (FLOs), as do items of Treasure. From the above statistics it appears this change in guidance is not having a major impact on the quantities of post-medieval finds recorded, suggesting it just codified existing practice. As ever, many finds recorded in 2019 are both noteworthy and provide potential for further research, both into the objects and their context, and a few are highlighted and discussed here.

The work of the Portable Antiquities Scheme (PAS) has been highlighted in this journal since 2005 and an introduction to the organisation can be found in previous reports. In 2019, 16,319 objects dating to the post-medieval and modern periods were recorded by the PAS in 13,454 records. This represented 20% of all objects recorded; a 9% increase in objects but a slight decrease in proportion from 2018, reflecting more recording in general. The major functional categories (calculated by object) were currency (coins and tokens) (42%), dress accessories (21%), arms and armour (6%), trade equipment (including jettons) (9%), vessels (4%), animal (including equestrian) equipment (3%), household fittings (4%), tools and utensils (2%), and entertainment and leisure (2%).
In the report for 2015 we noted a change in guidance whereby the PAS was being more selective in recording material dateable after 1540, and the reasons for it. 1 Of course, more recent artefacts of local importance continue to be recorded by the Finds Liaison Officers (FLOs), as do items of Treasure. From the above statistics it appears this change in guidance is not having a major impact on the quantities of post-medieval finds recorded, suggesting it just codified existing practice. As ever, many finds recorded in 2019 are both noteworthy and provide potential for further research, both into the objects and their context, and a few are highlighted and discussed here.

1.
A 'pilgrim' badge from Reed, Hertfordshire (PAS database: SF-C555E9; 2 finder Michael Pickering; identification and recording by Riccardo Caravello, formerly Suffolk FLO). A high-tin copper-alloy religious badge of late 15thto early 16th-century date, complete apart from a central iron attachment loop, now vestigial, on the reverse (Fig. 1). 3 The button-like badge is octagonal with concave sides and flat: it depicts the martyrdom of a bound St Sebastian by an archer on the viewer's left, engraved within a ropework border. It measures 29.51mm in diameter, is 1.86mm thick, excluding the loop, and weighs 4.85g.
Badges of this button-like form and of late date (for the object type in England) have rarely been treated in the British literature, though Sir John Evans published his personal collection numbering just over twenty in the early 20th century. 4 Being an overwhelmingly continental phenomenon, they have mostly received attention in French writings, most recently in Simon Cahanier's study (published in 2017). Cahanier discussed a corpus of 412 'boutonsenseignes', with only seven noted as coming from England. 5 Indeed, the current known English corpus only stands at fourteen: three with English provenances quoted by Evans, 6 plus eleven recorded by the PAS. 7 Badges of this type are generally found in an area focused on north-east France, apart from small numbers found in adjacent countries. 8 The Evans collection, since donated to the British Museum, contained an octagonal badge of St Sebastian, but featuring a pair of archers, one each side. 9 Badges of Sebastian were revealed to be rather rare by Cahanier's study: only nine examples were noted, although the variety of designs suggested the use of at least four moulds. 10 In general by far the most commonly represented saint is Barbara (appearing either solely or with other saints), with 90 badges in Cahanier's corpus and, indeed, two on the PAS database. 11 Connecting Barbara, Sebastian, and many other saints depicted on these 'bouton-enseignes', is their thaumaturgical dimension; Sebastian specifically was invoked as protection against the plague, and was a patron to many groups. 12 Indeed, this type of badge evidences personal devotion to saints, exemplifying devotional trends immediately before the Reformation. As such, though Saint Sebastian was associated with the sanctuary at the Abbey of Saint-M edard in Soissons (Aisne, France), this object need not necessarily be a souvenir from a pilgrimage there -it may have been acquired elsewhere, although probably in Northern France. Given the find location in Hertfordshire, the badge's owner may have felt that by wearing it they were also venerating St Edmund whose cult centred in adjacent Suffolk and who was martyred in a similar fashion. 13 2. A belt hook from Muckton, Lincolnshire (PAS database: NLM-6B44E4; 14 finder Steve Sutton; identification by Robert Webley, recording by Martin Foreman, Northern Lincolnshire FLO). A belt hook of late 15th-to early 16th-century date, complete in and of itself but missing any further attachments. It is anthropomorphic, moulded on its front and with a flat reverse from which a long, integral clip emerges at the back of the figure's neck ( Fig. 2). At the base of the object is an integral hollow tube, now empty. The figure wears a notably short tunic and hood, and their posed attitude is emphasised by a contrapposto stance. The object measures 57.4mm long and up to 19.3mm wide and 11.9mm thick; it weighs 25.49g. This is an example of a belt hook of specifically German origin and, importantly, represents only the second example of this type of strap-fitting recorded through the PAS, and only the fourth from England traced by the editors. In the German literature, they are known as 'belt hooks/clips', 15 and have primarily been suggested to be for the suspension of keys. 16 With only a suspension loop surviving occasionally within the tubular base, 17 they could have been used for a range of objects, as with a chatelaine. 18 According to an initial attempt at classifying these German belt hooks, this is an example of Heindel's type 4, depicting a 'man in Italian costume'. 19 The other PAS example is also illustrated here (Fig. 3); 20 it is of the more common type 3, described as a 'dancing couple'. 21 A hook showing a figure in a long robe (Heindel type 1) purportedly came from the site of Abingdon Abbey, Oxfordshire. 22 The final English piece, from London, 23 has been published as a variant on type 1, 24 though elsewhere a close parallel, recently reported from L€ uneburg, Lower Saxony, was christened as a distinct, 'female figure with three snakes' type. 25 In general, these belt hooks await a definitive classification. 26 The group of belt hooks discussed are thought to have been made in Nuremberg, Bavaria, a famed centre of brass production from the late 15th century onwards, 27 or, occasionally, been made elsewhere but based on Nuremberg types. 28 They have been published as being of late 15th-or early 16th-century date, on the basis of costume details due to a general absence of excavated dates. 29 Their rarity in England may be compared with two more common types of 'clavendier'; 30 these last differ in having their integral hook extending from the summit of the reverse. As with the objects documented here, examples of the other types tend to cluster mainly in the east of England, but their numerical superiority might suggest that they originated somewhere closer than modernday southern Germany. 31 Indeed, formal similarities may be noted between these other types and a form of strap connector published in a previous round-up (which also acted as a chatelaine), and noted as having a North Sea coast-near Continent distribution. 32 What is common to all such belt hooks and strap connectors -items of distinctive female fashion worn by house mistresses -is their overt Continental association, regardless of their precise origin.

3.
A papal bulla from Odiham, Hampshire (PAS database: SUR-F847F3; 33 finder Gordon Springford; identification and recording by Simon Maslin, Surrey and Hampshire FLO). A lead papal seal (bulla) issued under Pope Paul IV (1555-59) (Fig. 4). It measures 38.2mm in diameter, 5.6mm in thickness and 44.96g in weight. Papal bullae have been recorded by the PAS in their hundreds and are regularly reported in our 'sister round-up' in Medieval Archaeology, with a useful overview recently published therein. 34 However, only one bulla has been noted in the present journal's previous round-ups, a magisterial example of the Grand Master of the Knights Hospitallers. 35 The artefact under discussion here is not only a rare 16th-century papal example, but probably the latest papal bulla so far found in Britain. 36 The bulla's design is entirely conventional: it bears the papal name and number on the obverse, and the heads of saints Paul and Peter on the reverse, in the style used at the curia since 1480. 37 What is remarkable is that this is the only bulla recorded by the PAS to have been issued after the English Reformation. It may be speculated that it was once attached to a copy of Paul IV's bull 'Praeclara Carissimi' of June 1555 which in the reign of Mary, inter alia, imposed the reordination of all clerics consecrated under Henry VIII and Edward VI. The recorder has suggested a more specific, and perhaps therefore more tenuous, papal correspondence with the contemporary Bishop of Winchester, a Roman Catholic promoted to the see by Queen Mary the following year, that passed through the hands of his one-time Treasurer, Chideock Paulet, resident of 'Odiham Place'. 38 Such a specific association need not be assumed as, although bullae are often found on religious sites, secondary, apotropaic, uses mean many are found in other contexts. 39 4. A clay pipe from Yoxall, Staffordshire (PAS database: WMID-F58075; 40 finder Shaun Johnson; identification by David Higgins and Teresa Gilmore, recording by Teresa Gilmore, Staffordshire and West Midlands FLO). This pipe was found by a member of the public digging foundations. Most of the bowl and part of the stem survives, with some old chipping at the rim and a break on the stem. The bowl has a bulbous form with a short, wide foot at the base (Fig. 5). On the circular underside of the foot is stamped a maker's mark, 'H H' in a pellet circle -previously unknown, but almost certainly the initials of the maker. The bowl is at a c. 45-degree angle to the stem. Dr David Higgins (pers. comm.) suggests the form is consistent with local production and a date of c. 1620-60. The remaining fragment is 57.2mm long, 27.0mm tall and the bowl has a maximum diameter of 19.2mm; it weighs 11.8g. Just over 850 records of clay pipes for smoking have been recorded by the PAS representing 5,000 fragments -0.5% of all post-medieval records (excluding coins). However there is much regional variation, with pipes accounting for 2.5% of postmedieval records (excluding coins) in Somerset and 1% in Staffordshire, but only 0.01% and 0.03% in Norfolk and Suffolk respectively. This perhaps in part reflects the earlier date of the South West industry. 41 It is suggested that this rather low proportion compared to excavated sites of the 17th century, is in part due to selective recording due to pressures on FLOs' time, as well as selective retrieval and reporting. There is a clear focus on pipes with maker's  marks or which are otherwise distinctive in design: nearly 50% of the PAS records include a maker's mark, compared, for example, to 18% of bowls having marks in the 17th-century assemblage at St Peter in the Bail, Lincoln, a figure noted in the report as a high proportion. 42 The limited resource for recording is therefore focussed on pieces which can most readily be used for reconstructing local industries and patterns of trade. Clay pipes, like other 17th-century objects with regionally distinctive designs or maker's marks, have much potential for such reconstruction, 43 and it is hoped future studies will make use of the data in this way. At least three generations of Willem Momma (c. 1565-1631) were copper and brass founders and mill owners, originally at Aachen, North Rhine-Westphalia, a major export centre for metalwork. William Momma III moved to Amsterdam, and, in the 1640s, to Sweden where the family became very prominent. 48 The use of the eagle suggests these seals were used in Aachen before 1631, as an eagle is found on its city arms. 49 Such seals were however also used by Swedish manufacturers, 50 so it is not impossible that the design travelled with the family.

5.
While seals of this type are known with attachment loops many, including this example, appear to lack loops or to have had them carefully removed before disposal. A shipwreck washed ashore in 2012 at Terschelling, Netherlands, contained similar seals, although of a different manufacturer, looped through wire which held together a bundle of brass rods. 51 Possibly the loops were cut off to remove the seal without untying the bundle. It is tempting to link the close proximity of three finds of this type of seal to a specific trading link, possibly to the shipbuilding industry in Cawood and Selby which may have had use for copper and brass rods to make nails. 52 6. A penknife from Skirpenbeck, East Yorkshire (PAS database: YORYM-191185; 53 finder Mark Didlick; identification and recording by Rebecca Griffiths, North and East Yorkshire FLO). This knife is an example of a geographically dispersed group of small, spring-back folding knives with cast inscriptions on the handle dating to the mid-18th century. The handle is in the shape of a leg and foot wearing a shoe or boot with a pointed toe, small rectangular buckle and high, blocky heel (Fig.  7). The heel is of a form worn primarily by men in the 17th and first few decades of the 18th century, continuing longer on boots, while the small buckle suggests a late 17th-to mid-18th-century date. Iron is visible to both sides of the handle faces, probably representing the blade and a spring along the back. At the end opposite the foot-shaped terminal is a thickened bolster with hinge rivet. The edges are raised and a raised line marks off the foot and bolster, respectively. The central panel thus created contains the raised inscription which reads along both faces of the handle: 'Hear is a leg and foot//And a good blade toot'. Toot is possibly a contraction of 'to boot', to extend the visual pun. The handle is 80.6mm long, 12.8mm to 17.6mm wide, 8.5mm thick and weighs 24.4g.
At least two more examples with the same form and inscription are known in museum collections and in publications. 54 Simon Moore has kindly shared information on a third with the maker's mark 'STACY', for Joseph Stacy, whose mark was entered at Sheffield in 1723. A Joseph Stacey was also a cutler in Sheffield in 1672 when he, like other cutlers, refused to pay the hearth tax on his forge. 55 Thirteen knife handles with similar inscription forms have now been recorded by PAS. Apart from one example in the shape of a musket, inscribed PRESENT AND//GIVE FIRE', 56 the other examples, when they are complete enough to tell, are of a plainer, pistol grip, form with an expanded, down curving terminal (Fig. 8). This handle type was popular from c. 1720-70, overlapping with the end of the dating suggested on boot/shoe form above. 57 Most of the handles bear legends referring to the knife itself, the most common being: 'he that doth a good knife lack//by me i am steel unto the back'. 58 An example in the British Museum's collection with a seal matrix at the end and the legend 'buy me and then I will seal//your letter & make your pen', 59   . This provides a firm mid-18th-century dating for the wider group, which accords with the 1760s or 1770s date suggested by Simon Moore. 61 Other political examples reference Lord Blakeney, again probably for his role in the Seven Years' War, and George III and Queen Charlotte -probably commemorating their marriage and coronation in 1761. 62 The consistency in dating of this style of knife handle and blade, the lettering, boot style and political messages suggest they are all of similar period in the 1760s, with some perhaps made in the decade before or after. Minor variations in style and lettering suggest the knives were made by multiple manufacturers and could be further subdivided in future. In particular, examples reading 'TAKE HEED OR I//MAKE YOU BLEED' appear to be a different style of lettering and panel form (Fig. 8). 63 PAS examples with partial inscriptions which cannot be expanded into any extant ones also suggest there is a wider range yet to be identified. 64 The inscription of 'posys' on knives is found in the 16th century: 'Cutlers poetry upon a knife' is referred to in the Merchant of Venice. Although such examples are usually on blades, inscriptions on handles are also known. 65 In the above quote Shakespeare links the inscriptions on knives to those on posy rings and indeed the legend on a knife of this type is included in John Evans' study of posy rings. 66 Short posys that refer to the function of the object are paralleled more broadly on 17th-18th-century objects, including thimbles discussed in the last PAS round-up. 67 Here the inscription on a newly fashionable penknife illustrates how such legends, and associated novelty forms, could increase the marketability of a new consumer item. 7. A group of sporks from Cottam, East Yorkshire (PAS database: YORYM-1834FA; 68 finder David Haldenby; identification and recording by Rebecca Griffiths, North and East Yorkshire FLO). Further to the recording of a pair of aluminium utensil sets in the year discussed here, another four have since been documented from the same vicinity. 69 Each implement combines a connected spoon and fork, a 'spork'; they pivoted at a rivet on the handle, overlapping at that point when not in use with the fork's tines sitting in the spoon's bowl (Fig. 9). The sporks range only very slightly in length between 152.5mm and 155mm, in maximum width between 46.3mm and 46.9mm, and in weight between 25.6g and 30.9g. Indeed, they may all be identified as the same standard German WW2 army issue G€ offeln (a portmanteau word equivalent to 'spork', from Gabel (fork) joined with L€ offel (spoon)).
One spork bears both stamped marks and incised lettering (Fig. 9). The marks are arranged in a row, from left to right: a stylised eagle above lettering WaA(1)45; a parachute -the strings perhaps forming an elongated letter W with a letter T stamped within; and the year 1938. These stamps provide a 'Waffenamt' code (an inspection proof mark from the German Army Weapons Agency), an unidentified mark possibly suggesting a parachute unit, and a year of manufacture (1938). The crudely incised lettering is split by the rivet and reads 'R Wa-gner', presumably added by the owner. Only one other spork is stamped, with GK&F/40, suggesting it was made two years later by the brothers Kugel and Fink of L€ udenscheid, North Rhine-Westphalia. 70 Three of the other sporks have incised initials, two of which are ligated, also thought to refer to the owners.
Further objects found nearby these six utensils attest to localised activity during the Second World War. 71 They include two buttons: one a British Army General Service button made by Smith and Wright of Birmingham, 72 the other of the Kreigsmarine (navy) of Nazi Germany. 73   strong evidence for the location of the new camp, or part of it, to the west of Langtoft.