File:Medieval Barrel Padlock (FindID 252582).jpg

English: An incomplete cast copper alloy barb-spring barrel padlock of Medieval date (c. AD 1200 – c. AD 1400). Length: 34.6mm; width: 24.5mm and 12.2mm thick. Weight: 17.4g. The barrel case is sub-cylindrical in cross-section throughout its length and missing part of one end. At one end of the case is a projecting sub-rectangular arm (tab) which measures 13.2mm x 9.4mm x 3.1mm. The bolt bar is missing due to an old break. The barrel case at the arm end has a hole through which the slide-key could be inserted. This hole is filled with iron corrosion. At the opposite (damaged) end, inside the case, there is the remains of a central horizontal septum which indicates a mechanism with two spring strips. The upper face of the case is plain, the two sides have linear grooves and the lower face has sinuous grooves. The object is slightly worn and has a mid-green patina. No file marks visible. This padlock was probably used on a casket (Egan 1998, 92). Parallels from London (e.g. Egan 1998, 93; ref. 244) have come from pre-fourteenth-century contexts, although elsewhere they have been found in fourteenth contexts (Geake 2001, 50-51).