Group of goose bones. There is a concentration in this deposit of the carpometacarpi and wing digits of geese suggesting that they are waste from quill manufacture, having been discarded after the feathers were stripped off.

Group of goose bones

Medieval, probably 13th or 14th century

Found in the 1970s during excavations by Winchester Museums Archaeology Section at Victoria Road, Winchester, Hampshire

Most of the goose bones found from medieval Winchester are from all parts of the goose's body and they probably represent food remains. However, at the Victoria Road site, there was a concentration of wing bones. The suggestion is that these are the waste from making feather quills. Perhaps Hyde Abbey's scribes were kept supplied by craftsmen based here, just beyond the precinct walls.