Pinner's bones

Several objects made of bone have recently been recovered from excavations in Block H which shed light on medieval industry in the area. Each has been made from a large longbone, probably from a cow or horse: along one half of the bone, four flat faces have been made, and four or five deep grooves cut into each face at the end which has been hollowed out. This provides the working end of the tool which was used in the manufacture of metal pins.

Copper alloy pins were made in large numbers in the medieval period, as they were one of the main methods of fastening clothes together. Typically two lengths of wire were taken, the strand of shorter length being wound around one end of the strand of longer length. This created a wound head on a wire: the other end of the pin was then sharpened to form the tip. The bone tool was used to grip the pin while the tip was filed sharp, the pin being held in one of the grooves.

There has been plenty of evidence from previous excavations in the Hungate area that pin-making was undertaken here. Wires and finished pins were found in quantity at the site of the former Henlys Garage on Stonebow in 2004, and in 2000, pins, wires and four pinner's bones were recovered from a series of trenches across Hungate. There is also documentary evidence of medieval pin-makers or "pinners": a Pinners' Guild was established by the mid-14th century in York, the members of which would have had the monopoly on making and selling pins in the city. Other records refer to individuals - ten pinners are recorded as living in the parish of St Crux in 1381, while the accounts of the Ouse Bridge bridgemaster record the non-payment of rent for a property on the Shambles in 1464 by William Croft, who is described as a pinner.