NAIL

The find consists of 8 iron nails and an unidentifiable object that contains one further nail and is made of, or covered in, what appears to be fur.

The nails range in length from 135 - 175 mm, and c. 10 - 20 mm in width at their widest point below the head. All 8 nails have a rose type head and taper to a broad point. These features suggest that the nails were hand wrought, rather than cut or wire, a method where each nail is manufactured individually by hand on a blacksmiths anvil. The invention of the slitting mill c. 1590 simplified this process by manufacturing iron rods from which nails could be cut, tapered and given a head. Between 1790 and 1820 this process began to be replaced by machine cut nails, before eventual replacement by wire nails in the late 19th century. These nails, therefore, likely date from before the mid-19th century. The level of preservation of iron objects in an intertidal environment also suggests that they are likely to be more recent than the 1590 development of the slitting mill, a date of mid-18th to mid-19th centuries is tentatively suggested.

Images of the other object were sent to in-house finds secialist and animal bone specialist at Wessex Archaeology who both said it appeared to be animal skin that had been bundled up but could not tell what it was for. As the object has no readily diagnostic features, it remains unidentifiable.