Painted window glass shard, depicting a beast. From context 6001, Evans Halshaw site, Hyde Street, Winchester (WINCM:AY 35).

Painted window glass shard, depicting a beast. From context 6001, Evans Halshaw site, Hyde Street, Winchester (WINCM:AY 35).

Fragment of stained glass

Medieval, probably later medieval

Found by Wessex Archaeology at the Evans Halshaw site (now Silchester Place), Hyde Street, Winchester, Hampshire in the early 2000s

This fragment was found at Hyde Abbey amongst the broken remains of several different windows, in a demolition layer from the time of the Dissolution of the Monasteries. It seems to depict a beast, but it is hard to say what kind. Daniel's lion, or Jonah's whale from the Old Testament stories, perhaps? Or maybe one of the even more terrifying creatures that wait in hell to torture lost souls.

Painted window glass shard, depicting a beast. From context 6001, Evans Halshaw site, Hyde Street, Winchester (WINCM:AY 35).