File:Needle (FindID 442901).jpg

English: A copper alloy needle of uncertain date. The need le is complete but bent. Unusually, it is made from rolled sheet metal and the damage in the centre reveals that it is hollow. The needle is oval in section tapering to round in section towards the point. The head is slightly flattened and cut into a lozenge shape (a pointed end). The seam in the rolled sheet metal is along the centre of one face, and on the other face, a central groove was cut. The groove may have alloyed the thread to lie in the recess so preventing the needle head becoming too thick when threaded. A sub-oval / sub-lozenge shaped eye has been cut or punched in the flattened area. The seam in the rolled sheet runs the entire length of the shaft, twisting to one side at the point. There is a kink in the shaft immediately below the head, a sharp bend in the centre where the metal has torn and split, and a slight kink at the very point. The metal has a well developed dark green patina. The damage is also patinated. In addition, the cavity inside the needle was filled with soil, indicating that the damage must have occurred long enough before discovery for the soil to get inside the space.

Only two other needles noted to have been made from sheet metal have been recorded on the PAS database. They are NMS-6813D1 and BERK-A88CF6. Neither has a confident date; one is probably Roman and one is probably Medieval. This is probably because there do not seem to be any published references for sheet metal needles. The vast majority of published examples seem to be made from drawn wire. Needles have been published in Crummy, 1983 (Roman), Early Medieval examples from Flixborough in Evans and Loveluck, Medieval examples from London in Egan's Medieval Households, and Post Medieval examples in Material Culture in an Age of Transition. None are of the same construction as this example. The shape of this needle is similar to SF-2CC700 which has a suggested Early Medieval to Medieval date. Compare also NARC-EAA7E7 which is suggested to be Post Medieval.

Other finds from the area where this needle was recovered have been mainly Roman and there are crop marks interpreted as a Roman-British ladder settlement and field system recorded. However, the date of the needle remains unknown.