A Pocket Souvenir … From An English Civil War Castle Under Siege.

Talk to anyone who owned a metal detector before 1997 and you will probably hear an account of an unidentified discovery gathering dust in a drawer, or a shoe-box, until the opportunity comes along to ask an expert. That’s what happened during one of TimeLine Auction’s early sales held at The Swedenborg Hall, London in September 2010. A detectorist brought one of his finds to our consignment receiving desk and asked for an opinion on it, and its suitability for inclusion in a future TimeLine Auction.

About the size and thickness of an English late-medieval silver crown coin, its unusual shape suggested a roughly cut fragment from an item of domestic silverware, perhaps a jug or a plate. Its only markings, on one face, showed a simplistic representation of a castle keep; the letter S ; and part of either a letter X or a letter V. Our receivers at once identified it as potentially an English Civil War 5 shillings (or crown) obsidional piece from Scarborough Castle, which endured a year-long siege from July 1644 to July 1645. The rarity of Scarborough’s siege money has attracted interest from imitators and fantasists, as well as from outright fakers and forgers, all bent on profiting from the eagerness of collectors to own an example of the emergency coinage used by the garrison and townsfolk, who endured bombardment until the castle almost literally fell about their ears as it came under a
relentless Parliamentary barrage.

Fortunately, the staff on our consignment receiving desk could call upon the experience and numismatic knowledge possessed by the formidable Expert Vetting Team at TimeLine Auctions. Before I reveal their opinions and judgement on the potential lot, let me sketch the early history of Scarborough Castle, then explain the roles its formidable walls, its Stuart garrison, and Scarborough’s townsfolk played during the closing stages of the 17th century struggle to the death between King and Parliament.

Scarborough’s jutting clifftop had earlier made an ideal location for a Roman signal station; then for an Anglo-Saxon chapel; long before Henry II’s stonemasons spent ten years erecting the Great Tower and the castle walls that enclosed the headland during the years 1159-1169. A royal residence built within the walls dates from the 13th century. The medieval town and port that grew below the walls prospered in early medieval times from wool exports to Flanders, and from freshly -caught fish sales to Yorkshire monasteries and to inland towns. Later medieval prosperity brought shiploads of imported luxury goods to Scarborough.

The castle and its supply port, were held for Parliament by Sir Hugh Cholmeley at the outbreak of the Civil War in 1642. In March 1643, however, he and most of the castle’s garrison opted to change sides and support the Royalist cause. They set about strengthening Scarborough’s defences with an artillery battery. His cavalry also pillaged the local region for food supplies, capturing stores at Whitby, Beverley and at the estate of the Earl of Mulgrave, a Parliamentarian grandee.

In 1644 the fortunes of war swung against the king when, in July of that year, a combined force of Parliamentarians and Scottish Covenanters won a resounding victory at Marston Moor, precipitating the flight of the Royalist captain-general in the north. He, and other senior officers, shipped out from Scarborough and into Continental exile. A few days later the Royalist city of York surrendered. Sir Hugh Cholmeley now found himself commander of the most important Royalist garrison in Yorkshire; but desertions by some disillusioned soldiers soon reduced Scarborough’s garrison troops to 500.

In February 1645 the Parliamentarians, concerned that Royalist pirates were sailing out of Scarborough to loot coal ships bound for London, mounted an attacked with 1,700 men. They quickly overwhelmed the town, the artillery battery, and the port, cutting off all escape routes by land or sea for the Royalists. Cholmeley and his brave 500 retreated into the Great Tower and refused to surrender. The enemy had brought some of their most formidable weaponry to the
battleground, including a huge cannon that fired cannonballs weighing 65-pounds. Positioned in the local church’s chancel and aimed through the east window, its repeated pounding reduced the castle’s west wall to a heap of rubble. Turning this setback to advantage, the castle commander

had some of the rubble carried to the top of what remained of the fortress, where the broken masonry made ideal missiles to hurl down on the besiegers. It was at about that time that Cholmeley ordered all available silver plate and cutlery hacked into convenient sizes and marked with values by weight to serve as emergency coinage. He personally distributed many of the silver pieces to men who worked on repairing parts of the tumbled walls, paying them, in siege money, the equivalent of 6d per day. Close combat fighting continued until the defenders were obliged to surrender on July 22nd due to heavy casualties, starvation and disease. Only 25 men remained fit to fight; and fewer than half the original 500 emerged alive. The surrender terms allowed Sir Hugh Cholmeley to sail to exile in Normandy. At the war’s end he returned from exile, and died peacefully in Kent in 1657.

Forward in time some 350 years, to 1995 and a Lincolnshire ploughed field more than 50 miles from Scarborough Castle’s ruins. It was from that unlikely spot that the detectorist who visited TimeLine Auctions in 2010 recovered his unidentified find and brought it to us for examination. Our Expert Vetting Team reported as follows:
XRF analysis indicates the piece to contain 93.3% silver, 6% copper, 0.5% lead and 0.2% tin, which is appropriate for 17th century sterling silver (normally at 92.5% fine for assay and hallmarking). An XRF Certificate is included with this item.

The majority of the experts consulted gave the view that this is indeed an original piece of Scarborough Castle siege money, originating from the same host piece of silver as that of the Hunterian example (as the rim detailing matches) and everyone who has examined it agrees that it is contemporary. The British Museum was not able to express a definitive view as they have no piece for direct comparison. [..] In any event, the Hunterian specimen is the only other known
Scarborough crown bearing the castle punch in this form. [..] The degree of general wear indicates a quite long life, perhaps as a 'pocket' or souvenir piece.

We find ourselves wondering if one of the 25 men who remained fit to fight at the end of the siege, made his way home (to Lincolnshire) carrying this piece as a souvenir in memory of Scarborough Castle, and of his fellow defenders who died for the Royalist cause?

* This lot (a Stuart Scarborough Siege Piece Crown) sold in TimeLine Auction’s 16th December 2010 sale for £7,590 inc. bp)