Elizabethan Ring

 Map dowsing was used to discover this little beauty. I was given the chance to send a map to late John Bowman who was an 'authority' on dowsing being also the President of the British Dowsing Society. The cross he added on to the map supposed to indicate where I could find an ancient artefact. I really did not go with this sort of thing but curiosity got the better of me and I approached the landowner and explained what I was up to.

He agreed that I could go into the field suggested by John and almost near the spot where he had put a cross and the words GSA (good search area) I dug this fragment of a Saxon horse shoe. The shoe of this period was not very large, average about 4" X 4" and the significant feature of the type group is the wavy rim on the outer edge, prominent on all examples from the earliest to those dating to the thirteenth century .

The bulging at the rims near the nail holes arose from the method of production and was not a matter of design. The iron bar used was   about half to three quarters of an inch wide and was heated and bent,   then three large oval depressions were hot punched about two thirds of the way through the thickness of the iron on each branch, circular holes were then punched inside them, right through the metal. The narrow band could not take this drastic action without distortion and consequently bulged outward around the holes.