English: A late-medieval (C15th/early C16th) lead ampulla, or holy-water container, which could usually be worn around the neck suspended from a cord through two side lugs, though these are respectively bent and missing on this one as found.It is difficult to see on the image and perhaps on the object too, but is there a round-bottomed flask shown against a cross-hatched field on one side, the other side imitates a scallop shell, which had become the general symbol of pilgrimage by this time. The length is 41mm, width 30mm and weight 41.33g.

The hollow receptacle would have once contained holy water said to be tinged with the blood of a martyr or saint. They were sold to pilgrims visiting shrines in the medieval and Tudor periods. Sometimes they were filled with consecrating oil rather than holy water. The custom dates from the 12th century and remained in vogue until the reign of Henry the VIII. The scallop was a popular design as these shellfish wander the seabed just as pilgrims wandered from shrine to shrine. They can be decorated with a letter of origin hearaldic shields or voided crosses with pellets. Many are found on farmland sites as pilgrims used holy water to bless the land when they returned home. The scallop design is associated with the pilgrimage to St James de Compostela (Santiago) especially found in East Anglia, Walsingham is the likely origin.

Earlier ones clearly advertised from their designs which cult they referred to, but the late ones, of which there are many, almost perversely give nothing away, at least to the latter-day commentator. It looks as if at the end of the tradition a whole series of holy wells etc. became popular but the origin was not paraded as previously. See B Spencer 1998, Pilgrim Souvenirs and Secular Badges (Medieval Finds from Excavations in London 7) p203-5, and idem 1990, [same title again] (Salisbury & South Wiltshire Museum Medieval Catalogue 2), 59-62.