MEDIEVAL CANDLELIGHT

Second signal of the day (after a 50p piece), at an organised group dig. Hours after I had retrieved it from the red soil, I lit up the night live on Instagram with a white candle placed in it for the first time in almost 600 years. My antique dealer Dad (who collects Medieval domestic metalware) had filled me in on its provenance, probably 14th century, made in Belgium on the River Meuse where many of the domestic Medieval pieces came from. It would have originally had a shallow-dished circular foot.

Crazy to think this object lay in the dark for 600 years. Then I came along, and found it, and cleaned it, and lit a white candle in it. I love it, and I’m keeping it.

Interestingly, no-one at the group dig recognised it, I thought at first it was scrap, and chucked it in the footwell of my car. A lesson in always checking your scrap!