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PILGRIM BADGE
Unique ID: SOM-862035
Object type certainty: Certain
Workflow
status: Awaiting validation 
Medieval or early Post Medieval cast copper alloy pilgrim badge of St Barbara. The badge has a flat back and moulded front the outline of which follows the shape of the design. It shows St Barbara, robed and nimbate, holding a open book in her left hand. Her right hand is raised and may have held a palm of martyrdom as seems common on her badges, but if so this is now lost to a very worn break. To her right is a tower with moulding for a high doorway, window and conical roof. Both are on a curved ground line. From the back, just below the centre, projects a circular sectioned attachment spike the end of which is bent up and the tip is possible missing. At the central bottom point of the back is a thickened semi circular sectioned projection - this may be the end of the casting jet. It is 26.2mm long, 19.9mm wide and 3.9mm thick excluding the attachment, 10.1mm including; it weighs 5.09 grams.
Most examples recorded on our database show St Barbara with the tower to her left (e.g. IOW-B00471 and GLO-D4BD11). Two examples show the tower to the right (NARC-B9F6E5 and SOMDOR-9E68C2), the latter is similar in design to this example although not identical and is from Kingsdon, Somerset. This badge has been published by Lewis (2014, 34).
Notes:
St Barbara was locked in a tower by her father, a pagan, who threatened to kill her after she converted to Christianity, she escaped but was recaptured and sentenced to various punishments but refused to give up her Christian faith. She was finally beheaded by her father who was killed by lightening as punishment. Spencer (1998:178) comments: "St Barbara, who gave protection from sudden death, became very popular in the late 15th and early 16th century....Contemporary badges of St Barbara cast in copper alloy are also widely distributed."
Class: St Barbara
Subsequent actions
Subsequent action after recording: Returned to finder
Chronology
Broad period: MEDIEVAL
Period from: MEDIEVAL
Period to: POST MEDIEVAL
Date from: Circa AD 1450
Date to: Circa AD 1550
Dimensions and weight
Quantity: 1
Length: 26.2 mm
Width: 19.9 mm
Thickness: 10.1 mm
Weight: 5.09 g
Discovery dates
Date(s) of discovery: Monday 21st March 2011
Personal details
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Other reference numbers
Other reference: SCC 020620
Materials and construction
Primary material: Copper alloy
Manufacture method: Cast
Completeness: Incomplete
Spatial metadata
Region: South West (European Region)County or Unitary authority: Somerset (County)
District: South Somerset (District)
To be known as: West Crewkerne
Spatial coordinates
Grid reference source: Centred on field
Unmasked grid reference accurate to a 100 metre square.
References cited
| Author | Publication Year | Title | Publication Place | Publisher | Pages | Reference | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Lewis, M. | 2014 | Saints and their badges: Saints' Lives and Medieval Pilgrim Badges | Witham | Greenlight | 34 |
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Timeline of associated dates
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