Copper alloy casket lid from the 1973 City Offices Extension site, formerly the location of the cloister of St Mary's Abbey.

Copper alloy casket lid

Medieval, late 13th to early 14th century

Found during excavations by Winchester Museums Service Archaeology Section at the City Offices, Colebrook Street, Winchester in the early 1970s

The casket, found in the cloister area of what was St Mary's Abbey before Henry VIII's dissolution of the monasteries, probably had a religious or devotional use. At one time there were three binding strips- two survive- decorated with tracer punched borders and oblique zig-zag lines between. On the lid there are punched vegetal motifs arranged around poles, too stylized to suggest any particular plant, and the handle has been cast, pushed through the lid and folded back against the underside.