Cattle have been kept on farms around Leominster for hundreds of years. In the past, animals were not dehorned as often as they are now. When the cattle were slaughtered, their horns were a useful by-product, which could be used in many ways. Before the invention of plastic, horn was used because it was light, bendable and tough. It has been used to make musical instruments, shoehorns, knife handles, buttons, combs, boxes, jewellery and gunpowder flasks. In the Middle Ages, thin slices of horn were even used as windowpanes in small windows, instead of expensive glass, because they allowed some light into the room. These beakers probably belonged to local farm workers, who took them out to the fields on hot summer days to drink cider, beer or water. One of them has a name, a heart and the date ‘1875’ scratched onto it.