Despite its modest size, Pilton Priory possessed quite a large and ornate seal.  It was all the more unusual for bearing images on both sides, each half being formed in its own metal matrix with three little ‘ears’ that allowed the two halves to be correctly aligned.

The Two Sides of the Pilton Priory Seal

Over 200 years after the suppression of Pilton Priory, both matrices came into the hands of John Bowle (1725-1788), a Wiltshire vicar and Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries with a passion for Cervantes’ Don Quixote. Whether the Reverend Bowle (Don Bowle to his friends) was an extra proprietorial type or merely afraid of losing his acquisition, he had not one but both reverse sides of the matrices engraved with his name! Fortunately, future owners of the artefacts did not follow suit.

In the late 1870s, Pilton Priory’s seal matrices were acquired by the Victoria and Albert Museum in London.  Dr. Kirstin Kennedy, Curator in the Metalwork Section, re-examined these lovely Pilton artefacts and has also taken the time and trouble to bring together the information available and to produce a document about them. You can access this by clicking on this link: http://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O322757/seal-matrix/.

In 1867 a ring was found in a ball of clay buried close to Pilton Churchyard.  Inspection by the British Museum revealed it to be ecclesiastical and dating from the early 12th Century.  The suggestion is that it was given to the Pilton Prior by the Abbot of Malmesbury Abbey, when Pilton Priory was founded in around 1185, and was subsequently hidden in the ball of clay under a sapling when the Priory was dissolved by Henry VIII in around 1535.  It is a mediaeval gold ring, set with a cabochon sapphire surrounded with a bezel engraved with a Hebrew inscription translated as ‘May Jesu Emmanuel Jehova be with us’, and on the reverse, in Latin ‘Lord Jesus be with us’.

The Prior's Ring, Pilton

The ring was presented to the North Devon Athenaeum in 1976.  Follow this link to The Prior’s Ring to read the whole story.  The ring can be seen in the Dodderidge Room in Barnstaple Guildhall which has recently been opened to the public on the second Sunday of each month.