Hammer Head. Wrought iron hammer head with an oval shaft hole of length 23mm and width 15mm between a slightly waisted and markedly flattened peen or striking surface and a triangular profile blade. The striking surface is heavily burred. The surface of the object has begun to delaminate, to a degree which may argue some antiquity, but in itself a process which may deceptively exaggerate the angularity of its appearance.

The present stepped profile of the object is reminiscent of an 11^th-century illustration depicting a smith at work (Leahy 2003, Anglo-Saxon Crafts, Tempus, Stroud, fig. 60), though it less closely resembles excavated Anglo-Saxon hammers of 7^th to 11^th century date (ibid. fig. 61). W.H. Manning notes that a hammer used by a blacksmith must always have a rounded striking surface to avoid marking the metal being worked(1985, Catalogue of the Romano-British Iron Tools, Fittings and Weapons in the British Museum, British Museum Publications Limited, London, pages 5-6). This object had such a striking surface but it has been grossly distorted. There is no sign of the claw required by a woodworker's hammer to extract nails, though the use of nails would itself be a sign of poor carpentry.

The dating of hand tools is always problematical, as once arrived at, form, techniques and materials were resistant to change until the mechanisation of crafts. Suggested date: Unknown, Early Medieval to Post-Medieval, 1000-1800.