File:A complete English Post-Medieval copper-alloy farthing trade token, issued by Thomas Haw in the Maze, Southwark dating to AD 1648 -1674. Not in Williamson (FindID 871392).jpg

English: A complete English Post-Medieval copper-alloy farthing trade token, issued by Thomas Haw in the Maze, Southwark dating to AD 1648 -1674. Not in Williamson.

Obverse: IN Y MAZE SOVTHWARK= THO: / HAW / IS

Reverse: BYY DYERS ARMES= T . E . H

Dimensions: diameter: 15.65mm; weight: 0.57g.

Walford (1878:111) writes "The Abbot of Battle, an important personage as the superior of the monastery erected on the spot where the fate of Saxon England was decided, and especially patronised by the Conqueror, had a fine residence near the same spot, with well laid-out gardens, as an agreeable change from the natural beauties of hilly, leafy Sussex, adorned with parterres in Norman fashion, with a fish-pond and a curiously-contrived maze. The abbot has gone, and the palace and gardens are gone too; and Londoners of the nineteenth century hurry through Maze Pond, at the back of Guy's Hospital, little thinking whence the dirty street derived its name. The "Maze"-now an assemblage of small streets on the south side of the London Bridge Railway Station-is stated by Mr. Charles Knight in his "London," to have "once been the garden attached to the manor-house, or 'inn,' of the abbots of Battle, the house itself having stood on the north side of Tooley Street, in what is now called Mill Lane, which leads down to Battlebridge Stairs." Aubrey, in his "Anecdotes and Traditions," says, "At Southwark was a maze, which is now converted into buildings bearing that name;" but Peter Cunningham in his "Handbook of London," says that Maze Pond is so called from the "Manor of Maze," which formerly existed here."

Reference: Walford E. 1878. Old and New London: Volume 6. Cassell, Petter & Galpin, London.

Copper alloy trade tokens were first struck in 1648. In 1656 half penny tokens were introduced. 1674 by Royal decree production of trade tokens ceased. Pers comm Verity Anthony