Seneschal Lane, Douglas

Period: 15th-16th century

NGR Easting: 238252

NGR Northing: 475323

Description: Medieval coinhoard.

A hoard of medieval coins was found in 1846 at a site in Seneschal Lane, Douglas.

The hoard was described as containing 'many' coins, but only eight surviving today are known with a firm degree of certainty to have come from the some findspot.

M Dolley & AM Cubbon (1970) reconstructed the circumstances surrounding the discovery of the coins and the subsequent diffusion, loss and reassembly of a portion of the hoard in the Manx National Heritage collections.

The coins were found by workmen demolishing an old cottage, and a quantity were bought by the owner. A number were subsequently secured by Mr J Wallace for his museum in Distington, of which four survived a robbery to be acquired the Manx Museum. A further four coins were later donated by descendants of the family whose actions in clearing the site in 1846 had occasioned the original discovery. The replacement building was itself demolished in the 1930s as part of demolitions which completely cleared much of the surrounding area.

During the demolition process an additional coin was found 'near the market place' in 1934. Dolley and Cubbon rejected this as coming from the hoard; its findspot may, however, be no more than 30m from the main hoard site based on the description recorded, and given the disturbance associated with the demolition work, it is not impossible that it was originally part of the hoard.

All of the coins from the reconstructed hoard are gold: two nobles and six angels. The Market Place coin is also an angel.

From the Kaye collection:

Gold angel of Henry VII dated to 1505-1509, accession no. 1954-6647
Gold angel of Henry VII dated to 1504-1505, accession no. 1954-6648
Gold noble of Edward IV dated to 1465, accession no. 1954-6649

View map location on Archaeology Data Service

Site & Monument Type: findspot

Category: National Monuments Record: Archaeological Sites [multiple-site]

Site ID number: 0246.20

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