File:2136 Cast lead spindle whorl (FindID 218307).jpg

English: Cast lead spindle whorl diameter 27mm, thickness 14mm, weight 56g. Bi-conical cross-section, the surface has been divided into square cells, each cell has a semicircle emanating from the top with a pellet in the centre. The underside has a concave line on eider side of the whole, probably showing how it was originally mounted. Helen Geake writes: “Dating of lead whorls is difficult. The drop spindle with which they were used continued in use until the end of the medieval period in London and Winchester (Egan, 1998, “The Medieval Household: Daily Living c1150 – c1450”; and Biddle, 1990, “Object and Economy in Medieval Winchester”), and for perhaps a century longer in Norfolk (Margeson, 1993, “Norwich Households: Medieval and Post Medieval finds from Norwich Survey Excavations 1971 – 78”). The excavated assemblage from Winchester contains one lead whorl from a mid to late tenth century context.”