Little Bell - for a Dog? - from Cogges Priory, Witney: 11th century

In 1103, the new Norman Lord of the Manor at Cogges, Manasses Arsic, donated his timber-built manor house to a French religious order, under whose management the house was rebuilt in stone and enlarged (Manasses built himself a new house nearby).

The small bell of copper alloy, decorated with triangular piercings, and with an iron pin hanging from an iron loop in the dome of the bell, resembles the little bells worn by hounds on the Bayeux Tapestry. It was found in the remains of Manasses' timber manor house underlying the present stone buildings. Perhaps Manasses hunted to hounds? Was he perhaps hare-coursing?