Mr Lawrence Moulsdale found a lead figurine of a woman in Higher Kinnerton, Flintshire, whilst out detecting early in 2007. He brought it to his local FLO, Frances McIntosh for further identication, dating and recording onto the PAS database. Frances recognised it as being most-likely Post-Medieval but could not see any parallels in the relevant literature. She passed the photograph onto Geoff Egan, Finds Advisor for Medieval and Post-Medieval Finds for the PAS. He has a keen interest in lead figurines and got very excited about Mr. Moulsdale’s woman. He suggested it as rural version of the more detailed hollow cast lead toys which Elizabethan London children played with dating to the late 16th century. Mr. Moulsdale’s example is solid and has been cast fairly crudely, although it does have some detail on the dress and the hair.

PAS record number: LVPL-834150 Object type: Figurine Broadperiod: Post Medieval County of discovery: Flintshire Stable url: https://finds.org.uk/database/artefacts/record/id/189193

This find is the first of its type to be known and as such is a very important find even though it perhaps doesn’t look that exciting. Several versions of London’s more sophisticated toys have been found and Geoff had long harboured suspicions that there must have been similar playthings over the rest of the country. It seems unlikely that only London children would have had these types of toys and visiting people would have seen these and perhaps copied them. Metal Detecting is a way to get an idea of what was going in the large rural areas in the past. By recording their finds metal detectorists are helping to fill in the large gaps of our knowledge to give a more rounded picture of our country’s history.