About 1850 I was at Aldborough, Holderness, Yorkshire, and was there informed that there was an old iron helmet in the church, which was employed habitually as a coal-scuttle to replenish the church fires in winter, D.D.
Extract from a letter dated February 1879, from the Rev. Philip Wood
Loosemoore, Vicar of Aldborough, to Wentworth Huyshe, Esq.:
The notice of the iron helmet in the extract from "Notes and Queries" has
reference to 60 or 70 years ago, when it was used as a coal-scuttle, and much damaged
thereby. The village school was then held in the chantry of the church. . . . The
helmet now hangs over the tomb to which it belongs, and this tomb has the figure of
Sir John de Melsa in armour, with the feet resting on a lion. There is no inscription
on the monument. . . . The first Sir John de Melsa, of whom any account has been
found, was the owner of the land at Melsa, or Meaux, in Holderness, on which the
Abbey of Melsa was built, in the year 1150. Amongst his descendants was a son John,
who died without children about 1377, who owned the manor of Berwick.
Mr. Huyshe further remarked in the catalogue: "The bascinet cannot
have belonged to the first Sir John de Melsa mentioned in Mr. Loosemoore's
letter; but there is the possibility that it belonged to his descendant
John, who died in 1377, its form corresponding with the known type of that
period."
This bascinet, as may be supposed from Mr. Huyshe's notes, is in poor condition; and a thick coat of tar, with which it appeared to be covered when exhibited, did not facilitate an inquiry into its original aspect. Over the arch of the opening for the face is a series of small counter-sunk holes, half an inch apart, for sewing in a lining. At the nape, the helmet is hollowed out; the rivets can be traced by which a strap was probably secured, which also assisted to retain the lining in position. Up each side of the face-opening there are more rivets, probably for the same purpose, or possibly for fixing a camail; but as this helmet rested on the shoulders it would seem probable that it was used with a standard or hausse-col of mail rather than with a camail. On each side of the helmet, somewhat high up, is a rather large hole for the rivet which secured the visor. At the apex there is a ring. The late Mr. William Burgess, in his catalogue of the "Helmets and Mail" exhibition, drew attention to the resemblance of this helmet to those represented in the Meliadus MS., British Museum. A still closer resemblance will be seen to the helmet of a knight in a miniature from the De Ruina Trojæ, engraved by Hewitt, who considered this MS., as well as the Meliadus one, to date from about 1350.
