This hand-made ruler was found in an old fireplace in Walworth in 1991. It
is made out of bone. The bone is probably the long bone of a cow.
A long history
Walworth is first mentioned almost a thousand years ago in the Domesday
Book of ad 1086. The area probably started life as an agricultural
settlement. By the 17th century there was a manor of Walworth. In the 18th
century, the manor leased some of its land for the development of new
housing.
Whose ruler was it?
The ruler was found in the remains of a fireplace during excavations on a
site proposed for the new Walworth Police Station. The fireplace seems to
have been in the kitchen of a 19th-century house. The ruler may have
belonged to an occupant of the house, or possibly a carpenter, who worked
in the nearby builder's yard that existed during that time.
