Does anyone know if this is a shoe buckle and give a rough date on it? I found it this week in a field. The size is 2 inches by 1 1/4 inches and it is quite thin.
Sweet old buckle. As stated above, indicative of how old the site may be. Definitely more there to be found. Hunt the area slowly and carefully and you'll do well there.
Your find is definitely a trapezoidal buckle. Below is a pic from the book "Buckles 1250-1800" by Whitehead showing a similar example although yours is a bit smaller. As others have said, this definitely dates to the 17th century and was likely used for buckling spurs as Crusader already mentioned. Should be some other early finds at that site as well. Nice find!
thanks everyone for all the advice I ll take my time and cover everything, its a large area, nicely grazed by sheep , on the edge of an ancient track so am looking forward to it.will keep you posted