| Description | Hoard of bronze axes found in a gravel bed in the R.Calder, below Smalley Bight Farm, near Stanley Ferry. The site is three miles NE of Wakefield at an altitude of c. 50 ft. O.D. Cited grid ref. is from Varley 1977. Hoard was given to Leeds City Museum in 1914 by Mr.W.H.Bartholomew. It comprised eleven bronze implements: seven `Yorkshire' three ribbed socketed axes, a wing flanged axe, two palstaves and a bronze object bearing a design of a bearded man's head. Varley (1977) states that drawings were made of the hoard by Mr. A.H.Sharp and that Walker (1934) only illustrated 2 implements a looped palstave and a three ribbed socketed axe. Both are apparently now lost and these illustrations are the only record of them. Part of the hoard was destroyed when Leeds City Museum was bombed during the last war and there seems to be some doubt as to how many implements now survive; Varley (1977) lists the following implements: 1. 4 `Yorkshire' three ribbed socketed axes with nearly square sockets; each has three vertical ribs extending from the collar; 2. A wing flanged axe (Manby, 1986 states this is of Ulrome type; it is the earliest item of the group and is most likely a stray find) and 3. A palstave (Manby, 1986, states that this is of Sleaford type. Manby (1986) lists 8 socketed axes, 7 being of `Yorkshire' type, one of Everthorpe type. He also lists an Irish series palstave which may be a stray loss and not part of the hoard. He states that the 7 `Yorkshire' type socketed axes survive in Leeds City museum, as do the wing flanged axe and the Irish series palstave. Need to confirm what actually does survive, though Manby likely to be accurate, and his is the most up to date account. The hoard belongs to the Heathery Burn industry of Later Bronze Age metalworking. The products of this northern industry predominate in Yorkshire and its forms are more numerous than any of the earlier industries. In W.Yorks. the associations are hoards, both of scrap metal and of personal type, confined to the eastern edge of the Pennines, a distribution only slightly widened by stray finds of axes and spearheads. Socketed axes are the most common form, especially the 3 ribbed `Yorkshire' type and its plain version, the `Everthorpe' type. In Calderdale, wing flanged axes, palstaves and socketed axes have been found in hoards and at several localities (see discussion in Varley, 1977). Such finds made along the W. Yorkshire river system may indicate that trade routes were in operation between areas like the Wolds and the Pennines. |