Beach Croft Avenue, lead object

A lead object was found in topsoil in 1966. It weighed about 3.5 ounces. A hole had been pierced through it. It measured 3/16 inches x 5/16 inches and tapers towards the front. It was decorated with a lion. The British Museum Catalogue for 1907 page 269 shows a similar object which has been identified as a weight from the old provinces of Languedoc and Guienne in southern France. Such weights can be bronze or lead. They were either a pound, half or quarter pound in weight. They generally date to the 14th century, but began in the 13th. The device on the front indicated the authority (ecclesiastical or secular) which exercised jurisdiction in the town or district where the weight was issued. A French weight might have ended up here due to priors of Norman ancestry being located at Tynemouth Priory.