File:Cast cu-alloy and iron linch pin (FindID 431754).jpg

English: Cast copper-alloy and iron linch pin terminal dating from the Late Iron Age, i.e. ca. 100BC-AD100. The linch pin terminal was cast in the form of a bulbous cone which extends at the apex round into a 'button' terminal, sometimes referred to as a 'hoof' type. The terminal face is circular,17.8x21.4 mm in diameter, with in a raised oval border at the top. There is no decoration left on the face: instead, there are two small holes in a vertical line, but they seem functional rather than decorative. Traces of red enamel are left in the holes and it is likely that there was more (differently coloured enamel) all around the round hole, too. At the opposite end is a single ridged collar which is now very worn. Inside this cylindrical, tapering shaft there is a rectangular socket holding the corroded remains of the iron pin to a length of 15mm. This terminal was cast on to the iron pin at one end and another copper alloy terminal, or head, was cast onto the other end of the pin. The linch pin was used to hold the wheel hub onto the axle, and in this case, it was probably a chariot wheel.

The linch pin foot is a 'Kirkburn' type, named after a chariot burial in East Yorkshire, and dates from the Late Iron Age period, from the 1st century BC to the 1st century AD. "The Kirkburn linchpins belong to a well-known type (Spratling 1972, Group III - vase-headed linchpins) within the Arras Culture. Elsewhere in southern England several decorated examples are known, including one from Owslebury, Hants (Collis 1968, p. 31, Pl. xii), and the type was manufactured at Gussage All Saints (Foster 1980, p.18)" from Stead (1991) pages 44-7.

Hutcheson (2004) illustrates similar examples of decoration on pages 109-10, Nos. 46, 48-9, and dates these from about 100 BC to 100 AD. The employment of raised ring and dot motifs in two first century AD examples from Attleborough (Hutcheson, 2004: pp. 110, nos. 48-49). For a similar terminal foot on a complete linch pin see the Stanwick Hoard example illustrated in The British Museum and Smith (1925) on page 141, No. 157, and a recent find from Devon, (COOK-527973), which was copied and made into a complete replica, and is now on display at the Royal Albert Memorial Museum.