Overview
- Researchers used non‑invasive CT scans to create a 3D image of the padlock’s internals, identify the letter combination ANCE, and successfully open the 400‑year‑old lock.
- Dr David Williams of Cardiff University led the imaging work, which repurposed equipment from the Musculoskeletal Biomechanics Research Facility to read the lock’s notches without damaging the object.
- The brass lock was found close to Spanish silver coins and two coin weights recovered from the Margam beach site, most of which were located by metal detectorist Peter Hughes over a 21‑year search.
- After conservation the lock and associated Ann Francis artefacts went on public display at the National Waterfront Museum in Swansea, with the exhibition running through September 2027.
- The finds tie to the Ann Francis, which was wrecked on 28 December 1583 while returning from Spain with cargo owned by Francis Shaxton, and the opened lock supports the view that it once secured a small chest of valuables or perishables that have not survived.