Harris Seal

Harris Seal, Image by StuE, Found by Doug Turner.
Found in Somerset, 25mm, 20.1g.

One side has .HARRIS. curved down around the outer border above and CALNE.WILTS curved upwards around the outer border below a Crown, which occupies the centre. The other side has BACON curved downwards and CURERS curved upwards.

Thomas Harris was the first to use the process of bacon curing on a large scale in 1770 and finally took out a patent for it in 1864. In 1983 it finally closed its large factories at Calne.

A drawing of Thomas Harris's bacon factory, behind High Street, in 1887 can be found here and photograph here. The demolition of the factories with a commentary by an old employee can be seen here.