Week 20, Medieval Pilgrim Badges

Lead pilgrim badges were made in large quantities from about 1350 to

1450 AD. They were brought by pilgrims as souvenirs of the different

shrines they had visited and would be worn on hats and clothing. They

were very fragile and, although many were made, few have survived.

The Lynn Museum’s collection is one of the finest in the country. It was

started in the late 19th century by Thomas Pung, a King’s Lynn jeweller,

who paid children to search for them in the mud of the Purfleet. The

badges were dropped into the water by pilgrims using the ferry over the

Great Ouse on their way to and from Walsingham. Pilgrim badges were

the medieval equivalent of modern souvenir felt badges sewn on the

back of rucksacks.

The lion and the swan have lost their heads and the chap has lost a few extremities too!.