a small find for May Day

Today is the 1st May, which is historically the May Day festival and, since 1890, International Workers’ Day.

‘… The origin of our present holiday lies in the fight for an eight-hour working day, in which cause the leaders of the socialist Second International called for an international day of protest to be held at the beginning of May 1890. They did so just as the American Federation of Labour was planning its own demonstration on the same date. The UK protest actually took place on a Sunday, and in London alone attracted 300,000 protesters to Hyde Park … Initially, May Day was intended to be a one-off protest, and in some ways quite a solemn affair. But it persisted amid a flourishing of trade unionism. The symbolism of the workers’ Easter, of rebirth and renewal, dramatised this experience of revival …’ – at www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2012/may/01/may-day-history-international-workers-day

The Trust conducted a long-running watching brief in Colchester Castle Park, from spring 2013 to the end of 2014, to monitor the groundworks for a programme of improvements to the park which included the removal of the play area and the creation of a new play area, and the installation of new information boards. The Castle Park is a Scheduled Ancient Monument, and the whole area is of high archaeological importance, as it includes the sites of the Roman temple of Claudius and its precinct, Roman streets and houses and part of the Roman town wall. Any groundworks in the park should be monitored by an archaeologist or preceded by archaeological excavation, so Colchester Borough Council commissioned us to undertake the watching brief and, also, a small evaluation in the sensory garden.

Don is now writing his report on our watching brief and evaluation in the Castle Park and collecting the finds together to be studied by specialists. One of the small finds is a stamped trade weight which, we think, dates to the 17th century. It is made of lead and it weighs just under 8 ounces (which presumable was its nominal weight). We excavated it during our evaluation in the sensory garden, where it had been redeposited, perhaps during earlier groundworks in the area. Colchester has a long history as a manufacturing and trading centre, so it seems quite appropriate to feature a historic trade weight on International Workers’ Day.

The images show the trade weight on both sides.

.