File:216 Medieval Barrel lock side (FindID 72164).jpg

English: Barrel padlock

 Medieval 12th –14th century 

 Length 35mm, width 11mm, thickness 1mm.
 
 

 Hollow hexagonal barrel (31mm long, 1mm wide, 1mm thick), with a wide hollow aperture at the other end of the barrel.  Square slot (5mm by 5mm) removed from the topside of the barrel above this aperture with a bar 2mm wide runs down the centre inside the barrel just after the slot.  

 ‘T’ shaped aperture on the terminal of the other end.  Above the aperture on the top of the barrel is a rectangular arm (10mm high, 8mm long, 2mm thick) with the long side running down the barrel.  Circular hole at the centre of the base of the arm on the right hand side that runs into the barrel.  On the top of the arm there is a bar that prudes from the arm and runs down the length of the barrel, 7mm above the barrel.  The arm has a circular cross section (25mm long, 3mm diameter), the bar has been bent towards the barrel, knop on the other side of the arm to the bar (3mm long 3mm diameter).  

 

 There are two sets of parallel grooved lines at either end of the barrel that run around its circumference. 


 Dark green patina over much of the surface which is the original surface, displaying linear markings which would be a combination of ware and evidence of the manufacturing process.  There are also patches of lighter green where the original surface has corroded away.  

 

Artefacts such as this one have been found at York and have been dated to the 12th – 14th century one in particular is very similar 12597 and has been recorded as coming out of a Late 12th century context (Ottaway & Rogers, 2002, 2866-2871). Nevertheless, these types of locks are much more common in the 13th – 14th centuries.