padlock

Barrel Padlock

Do you use a bike lock or lock the garden shed or maybe use a lock on your secret diary?

The Vikings used locks on their boxes and chests to keep valuable things safe a thousand years ago.

This lock is called a barrel padlock but it doesn't look the same as padlocks today, and the keys are peculiar too. We can see how it worked by looking inside. The key had to squeeze two bars together to open the lock.

It was a difficult object for the blacksmith to make but it must have been a bit special because he decorated the outside with wiggly lines made from brass.

Modern copies of Viking padlocks and keys

What do you think was in the box which it once locked? Gold, jewellery, coins, or perhaps valuable spices which had come from thousands of miles away?

You can see the padlock and key at JORVIK in York.