Festival of British Archaeology: The Middleton Jewel
- Debbie Jordan
- 4 days ago
- 3 min read
The 18th July to 2nd August 2026 is the Festival of British Archaeology. To mark this, this post will focus on another archaeological discovery at Middleton: The Middleton Jewel.
On 10th September 2014, Colin Pearson, a metal detectorist, discovered the Middleton Jewel in a field near the crossroads at the entrance to Middleton Hall. It is an extraordinarily rare find with only a handful of this type of artefact having ever been found in Britain. The Middleton Jewel was subsequently purchased by Warwickshire Museums.
It is made of gold and it is the lid of a lozenged-shaped reliquary pendant. Its dimensions are: 33.5mm in length; 27.6mm in width; and 0.8mm thick. It is engraved with the image of St George in Italian armour holding a lance and spearing a dragon. The Middleton Jewel has been dated to circa 1450.
Because the pendant was lozenged-shaped, it can be determined that it would have belonged to a woman. Furthermore, it can also be determined to have belonged to someone of the high nobility because high-purity gold jewellery, such as this pendant, were only commissioned by royalty or the very highest tiers of the nobility in the 15th and 16th centuries. This is what makes this a rare find as very few were ever made and even fewer survived being melted down.
The time around 1450 was a complicated period in the ownership of Middleton Hall. One third of Middleton was owned by Sir Philip le Boteler. The remaining two-thirds were divided between the co-heirs of the Baldwin de Freville who had died in 1418. After his death, the King Henry V had instructed that the heirs, for the rest of their lives, were to jointly remain in ownership of the lands they received. Baldwin’s three heirs were: his sister, Elizabeth de Freville, who was married to Thomas Ferrers; his sister, Margaret de Freville, whose first husband, Sir Hugh Willoughby, had died in 1448 and it was in 1450 that she married Sir Richard Bingham; and his nephew, Robert Aston. These three heirs then decided to divide the manors they received amongst themselves so that only one of them, and their heirs, would ultimately inherit, thus creating entire manors under a single owner again. Middleton was allocated to Margaret and Middleton Hall was known to be her primary residence until her death in 1493. Hence, it can be determined that for even a wide estimate on the date of the pendant, Middleton Hall was in the possession of Margaret.
The cult of St George is thought to have emerged in the 4th century and had spread to England before the Norman Conquest, although the notoriety of the Saint was further enhanced as a result of the Crusades. The legend of this soldier saint particularly resonated during the era of chivalry and, in the reign of King Edward III, St George was made the patron saint of England, replacing St Edmund. Many surviving English medieval icons of St George and the dragon can be linked to the illustrated translated version of Legenda Aurea by William Caxton (1484). However, the Middleton Jewel definitely predates this. The original Legenda Aurea was published in the mid-13th century by the Italian Archbishop Jacobus de Voragine and it was first translated into English in 1438.
There are two further uses of the icon of St George in armour slaying the dragon that might have a link to the de Frevilles and are interesting to consider in relation to the Middleton Jewel.
After the discovery of the Jewel, Middleton Hall Trust were told that, during some work that had been undertaken, a similar image had been uncovered painted on a wall in Tamworth Castle. Tamworth had been similarly jointly inherited as Middleton in 1418 but, by the agreement of the heirs, it was ultimately entailed on the descendants of Elizabeth. Elizabeth died in 1452.
The de Freville family were for centuries in possession of extensive areas in and around Coventry and were very involved with activities there. The final image of St George to feature in this post is an artefact from Coventry. It is a painted, polychromatic oak carving of St George in armour slaying the dragon. The carving was originally located at St George’s Chapel, which was built directly on the eastern city walls, at the Gosford Street Gate. This carving has been dated to about 1470-1490 and is today part of the collection of the Herbert Art Gallery and Museum in Coventry.
Further Reading: Alison C. Barker, The Dissemination of St George in Early Modern Art, 2025.
Author - Debbie Jordan, Middleton Hall Volunteer.
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