Cannonball
Category
Stone
Date
Unknown
Materials
Stone
Measurements
365 mm (Diameter); 1130 mm (Circumference)
Order this imageCollection
Bodiam Castle, East Sussex
NT 68504
Summary
A stone cannon ball, 14 inch diameter approx..
Full description
In his book 'Bodiam Castle', Curzon writes: 'On the top of the Causeway and close to the gap a large ash tree, said to be fifty years old, had to be felled. Its roots had extended right across the gap and into the main gateway. While the men were at work on the gap they discovered a large stone ball 14 in in diameter and 42 in in circumference, lying on the bottom of the moat, exactly at its centre. Whether this ball was intended to be thrown or ever was thrown from one of the stone casting machines, variously known as mangonels, trebuches and ferrieres, that were in use up till the end of the fourtheenth century, i.e. the date when Bodiam was built, or whether it may have belonged to one of the great bombards or mortar firing stone and iron shot, that were then coming into vogue, it is difficult to say. I am inclined to accept the first rather than the second hypothesis, since in many English castles of the period the old siege engines were still kept in store. I think it more probable that this ball dropped into the moat from the Castle, than that it was discharged against it by an enemy.
Provenance
Believed to be the large stone cannon ball found by Curzon during his 1919 excavation, as listed in his book 'Bodiam Castle'.