• Date: 17th century
• Material: wrought iron

Caltrops are a type of defensive weapon used since the Roman period and still in use today. They were spread on the ground in advance of foot soldiers and cavalry. Because of their form, they will always fall with a spike pointing upwards.

• Date: 17th century
• Material: cast and wrought iron

Fired from cannon when red-hot, cannonballs like these had spikes that would have enabled them to fix into timber buildings and set them alight. Incendiary cannonballs were also often used for naval battles.

• Date: 17th century
• Material: lead
• Place Made/Found: across the castle

Muskets were slow to reload, inaccurate, and had a limited range. But with enough musketeers in a line firing together they could be very effective.

Musket owners had to carry the equipment needed to melt lead and cast their own shot. The casting marks showing the two halves of the mould are visible on some of the examples here.

• Date: 17th century
• Material: cast iron

During the Civil War, only the elite would have had personal small arms such as this. The foot soldiers would have been supplied with crude inexpensive weapons such as pikes.

• Date: 17th century
• Material: ceramic
• Place Made/Found: north side of the moat, about 4 inches down

Durable stoneware drinking vessels such as this one were imported from Germany in huge numbers in the 17th and 18th centuries. In a rich household the rim was sometimes enhanced with a decorative silver collar.

• Date: 17th century
• Material: copper alloy with gilding
• Place Made/Found: the barbican, about 3 inches down in made-up ground

In the 17th century horsemanship was almost a cult among the rich and powerful. The decoration of this gilded spur shows how elaborate equestrian equipment could be.

• Date: 17th century
• Material: wrought iron
• Place Made/Found: the castle well

The kitchen and bread oven were near the well in the courtyard. This baker’s peel, for putting bread into a deep wood-fired oven and retrieving it, would originally have had a long wooden handle.

• Date: 17th century
• Material: copper alloy

Horses as well as riders had high-end accessories, the origin of later horse brasses. This decorative mount would have been highly polished when new.

• Date: 17th century
• Material: wood
• Place Made/Found: the castle well

For millennia women washed laundry next to watercourses and wells using a paddle, also called a bat, to extract water from the wet fabric. This is a rare survival, preserved by the waterlogged conditions in the well.

• Date: probably 16th century
• Material: plaster under limewash
• Place Made/Found: basement of the north-west tower

These three pendants and a section of a rib would have formed part of a plaster ceiling. Many high-status medieval buildings were modernised and redecorated in the 16th century, and an elaborate plaster ceiling for the most important rooms was a particular ‘must-have’ addition.

• Date: 17th century
• Material: wrought iron
• Place Made/Found: the castle well

Many tools were recovered from the well, including this claw hammer, which is almost identical to a modern example.

Other types of tool found include a ‘plumber’s dummy’, used to unblock drains. The numbers of these found suggest that the drains were a considerable problem at Goodrich Castle.