File:Medieval padlock (FindID 784810).jpg

English: An incomplete medieval copper alloy barb-spring (barrel) padlock dating to the 13th or 14th century, consisting of the hollow casing and the base of the projecting arm only (which would in turn have connected to the missing bolt bar). There is some damage to the opposite end of the casing from the projecting arm.

The casing is sub-octagonal in cross-section (9.9x9.2mm) and contains the remains of a vertical septum inside one end, indicating a mechanism with two spring strips. A 'Y'-shaped aperture is present at the opposite end, through which the slide key could be inserted. The top edge of the casing, beyond the v-shaped cut-out (the top of the 'Y'), is decorated with rocker-arm in a zig-zag line. Inside each resulting triangular shape is a short line of rocker-arm decoration.
The projecting arm is rectangular in shape with a circular piercing, 2.8mm in diameter. It extends 12.5mm from the base of the casing. From its furthest, inside edge is a worn rectangular projection, the remains of the bolt bar.
The object measures 29.8mm long, 9.9mm wide, 22.8mm in depth and weighs 8.86g.

A padlock such as this would have been opened with a barrel padlock key and its size suggests use on a casket or chest (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 later contexts (Geake 2001, 50-51).