I have always been interested in history and I was delighted last week to be invited to a private viewing at St Michael’s Church of the Augustinian Stone Priory seal, pictured below.
In October Surrey County Council said that a metal detector in Cobham had dug up an artefact of cast copper alloy, which experts have dated as 13th century.
Now the seal matrix, which measures 7cm long and 5cm, has been loaned to the town.
Mystery surrounds how the archaeological find, which had its origins at Stone Priory, ended up 170 miles away in Surrey.
The ancient building, which once stood on the present site of St Michael’s and St Wulfad’s Church, was founded between 1138 and 1147 by Robert de Stafford, an ancestor of the present Lord Stafford.
The link was made with Stone after the seal, which bears the image of the Virgin and child, was deciphered.
It reads: “S’ecce Sce Marie et Sci W(v)lfadi Martiris de Stanis” – which is “seal of the church of Saint Mary and Saint Wulfad, Martyr of Stone.”
The seal would have been used by the Prior to leave an impression on wax to seal important documents to prove that they were secure and authentic.
One theory is that when Stone Priory was one of the first to be dissolved by King Henry VIII in 1537 canons from Stone took it to the Augustinian Priory at Newark in Surrey, which is not far from Cobham, for safe keeping.
Stone Priory was founded around 1138-47 as a daughter house of Kenilworth Priory in Warwickshire.
The Priory continued to be used as a parish church until it was demolished and replaced by the current church of St Michael and St Wulfad, pictured below, in 1758.
The finder of the seal, Tony Burke, is keen that the artefact, believed to be worth around £7,000 is returned to Stone on a permanent and secure basis.
To find out more about the seal contact St Michael and St Wulfad's church on http://www.achurchnearyou.com/stone-st-michael/on
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