Many monastic artists reached senior positions; Spearhafoc's career in metalwork was paralleled in less sensational fashion by his contemporary Mannig, Abbot of Evesham (Abbot 1044–58, d. 1066), and at the end of the previous century Saint Dunstan had been a very successful Archbishop of Canterbury. Spearhafoc's predecessor as Abbot of Abingdon, Saint Æthelwold of Winchester, had by this time acquired a reputation as a goldsmith, and was credited with the production of a range of metal objects at the abbey, including many figures and objects in precious metal, bells and even a pipe organ. However the lack of any reference to such skills in the contemporary biography by Wulfstan suggests this was a later elaboration, though one that shows the high status of goldsmithing at the time.