An 300-year-old token that allowed children to take half a day’s leave from Christ’s Hospital School has been dug up in a Cornish garden, the West Sussex boarding school reports.
Brian Sellick, who lives near Torpoint in Cornwall, dug the medallion-like object up in his garden about 10 years ago and had always wondered what it was.
But he recently googled the words which appear on the object – Christ’s Hospital. He emailed the school to find out more and school museum staff knew exactly what the object was.
Mike Barford from Christ’s Hospital Museum said: “What Brian found in his garden is a ‘leave ticket’, which was greatly treasured by Christ’s Hospital pupils in its day, as it entitled them to leave the school premises in Newgate Street, London, for half a day, or sometimes a day.
“A pupil who was granted a leave ticket wore it suspended from a buttonhole in their coat; if they were caught outside the school without a leave ticket, they would be in serious trouble.
“To appreciate why it was so treasured, it helps to know that pupils were not allowed to go home even in the holidays and had to stay in the school 365 nights a year for the seven years they were usually at school for”, said Mr Barford.
This type of circular leave ticket, produced in 1703, was replaced by a triangular shaped one in 1729 after a further 500 tickets made in 1720 had all been lost. It is thought that pupils might have purposefully “lost” their tickets in a place where they could be found and re-used again and again, hence the new shape of ticket being introduced to render the old, round ones worthless.
“I have been puzzling how the leave ticket may have got in our garden”, said Mr Sellick. “As the area borders the river Tamar, where there is a history of seafaring, it could well have been lost by ancient seafarers when coming ashore. I have found several other artefacts including a marble bottle stopper, clay pipes and other items of interest from the past.”
Interestingly, Christ’s Hospital Museum had the same query a few years ago from a lady in Portugal who had found a 1703 leave ticket in a flea market in Porto.