15th-mid 16th century AD. A very large lead vesica-shaped seal matrix bearing an incuse image of a stylised male figure, possibly a bishop, standing facing, left hand raised in benediction, wearing a decorated robe, holding a staff with cruciform finial, the surrounding Latin legend reads: '+ SIGILhEN RIC .ARChIE PISCOPI OR DWE LI N O', 'Seal of Henry, Archbishop of Orwell'; accompanied by an impression, held in a hinged wooden presentation box. See Green, Dr. C., St Nicholas or 'Boy Bishop' tokens in fifteenth- and sixteenth-century East Anglia, the personal website and blog of Dr Caitlin Green, Wednesday 28th January 2015, for discussion of the use of boy bishop tokens. 384 grams total, 79mm (box: 21 x 13cm) (3 (8 1/4 x 5)"). Found whilst searching with a metal detector near Kirky Mallory, Hinckley and Bosworth, Leicestershire, UK, in 2018, by Robert Ward; accompanied by a copy of Portable Antiquities Scheme (PAS) report number LEIC-B9E481. Designated 'a find of note' and of 'County / local importance' in the associated PAS report, which dates the find to 1400-1550. The same report states 'Malcolm Jones has suggested the place name must be Orwell in Cambridgeshire as CODEPN 4th ed. shows that early forms of modern Orwell are spelled Ordwel- or Orewel-, making *Ordwelinus or *Orewelinus 'proper' Latin adjectival formations of the place name. The seal is of an inferior material for an official ecclesiastical seal and given the place name cannot be an attempt at a forgery. Malcolm Jones says: 'despite its crude execution, I consider the seal of the Archbishop of Ordwell to be of disproportionate importance as a unique relic of the popular late medieval burlesque Boy Bishop custom, particularly well-attested in East Anglia.'

Fine condition.