File:Medieval leash, Complete dog leash (FindID 452767).jpg

English: A multi-harnessing dog leash buckle and swivel for a dog's harness. The object has a buckle for attachment to a strap at one end and behind this buckle is a double-hinged openwork plate. Connecting at the opposite side of the openwork plate is another sub-rectangular fitting with another hinge on its faceplate, this time allowing the up and down movement of a swivel loop instead of the side-to-side movement of the buckle attachment. The swivel loop has debased zoomorphic terminals above the join; on the opposite side of the swivel loop is a broken hinge; the finder recovered the second part of the leash some time after finding the first part; the two fit neatly together, with the second smaller part reflecting the arrangement of buckles described above. The swivel loop is identical to a tap loop recorded from a late 14th-century context in London (Egan 1998, 242-3, no. 745). One direct comparison of an incomplete dog leash is recorded from Winchester (Rees et al. 2008), with an almost identical swivel loop. Therefore it is suggested that some 'tap loops' are actually dog leash swivels. The Winchester example has been suggested to date to the second half of the 13th century (Rees et al. 2008, 232), and due to the similarity in design, the same date is offered for this example.

Dog leashes are objects of very high quality and probably reflect the wealth of the owner. Although the Radley example is now corroded and the hinges and loops do not move, it is obvious that this object was designed for maximum movement in several directions, and the thickness of the metal used to construct the seperate elements suggests that strength was important too.

This is the first example of a complete dog leash to be recorded. A similar but far grander example made from gilded silver has been reported through the Treasure Act 1996 and recorded at SF-3AD2BB.