Description

Hand spikes are wooden leavers used to manoeuvre a gun and/or carriage into position (Blackmore, 1976). These are usually made from a strong wood such as ash or elm with a square head and a tapering round wood shaft similar to a capstan arm. It could be possible that the transom of the carriage contained a socket into which the square head would have fit to allow the gunners to traverse the cannon.

Several handspikes were located on the site of which two definite spikes, SCW572 & 757 were recovered and one possible spike, SCW2052. All of the hand spikes located on the site were found crossing a gunport, some with heavy concretions suggesting that they were mounted on iron brackets. SCW2052 was also found crossing the gunports like the other spikes is heavily eroded and appears to be made of a different wood type to the other spikes and is square in profile with small hole at one end.