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The Willow Moor Bronze Hoard, Little Wenlock, Shropshire

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  08 January 2012

Lily F. Chitty
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Extract

On 15th May 1924 Mr. Harold J. E. Peake, F.S.A., read to the Society of Antiquaries a short paper announcing certain new facts regarding this Late Bronze Age hoard that had come to light mainly through research in, or connected with, the Bronze Implements Card Index of the British Association.

Two approximately contemporary accounts of the discovery exist, but these contain so many divergences that it was uncertain whether two distinct hoards were referred to, and Sir John Evans, in his Ancient Bronze Implements (1881), numbers and treats of them separately, with a query as to their identity. Our fresh evidence demonstrates that the two descriptions refer to the same group of bronze implements.

Type
Research Article
Information
The Antiquaries Journal , Volume 8 , Issue 1 , January 1928 , pp. 30 - 47
Copyright
Copyright © The Society of Antiquaries of London 1928

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References

page 30 note 1 Evans, Anc. Br. Imps., under ‘Little Wenlock’, pp. 113, 234, 314, 336, 452, 465; under ‘Wrekin Tenement’, pp. 285, 338, 465; Hoards List II, nos. 44 and 41.

page 30 note 2 Elected F.S.A. 1836.

page 30 note 3 Archaeologia, xxvi, 464–5.

page 31 note 1 Salopia Antigua, pp. 89–98.

page 31 note 2 Erroneously included in Roy. Com. Anc. Monts. Montgomery, fig. 56, as part of the Guilsfield hoard.

page 32 note 1 The measurements of the objects recorded in the Catalogue are as follows, the dimensions being given in millimetres:

page 34 note 1 Op. cit., p. 96.

page 34 note 2 Arch. Journ., vii, Feb. I, 1850, p. 77.

page 34 note 3 With these bronze weapons is preserved a flaked stone knife with a short tang (length 103 mm.; width across barbs 40 mm.). This was supposed to be of Wrekin quartzite, but at the exhibition of specimens Mr. Reginald Smith pronounced the implement to be American, probably from Ohio, an opinion subsequently confirmed by specimens at the British Museum. It may well be a ‘stray’ from the collection of the late Rev. S. C. Freer, formerly vicar of High Ercall, near Wellington, which contained many North American implements: part of this collection is now in Birmingham Museum, but a considerable portion is known to have been sold after his death in 1902.

page 34 note 4 Only one spear-head and a socketed celt are recorded from Child's Ercall, both of which are satisfactorily accounted for in the Museum: the celt and the Willow Moor spear-head are among the bronze implements illustrated in the Victoria County History, Shropshire, i, plate facing p. 200.

page 35 note 1 Donations Book I, Shrewsbury Reference Library, and Arch. Camb., (Welshpool Meeting), 3rd Series, ii, 366: ‘Bronze spear-head found at the east end of the Wrekin, with a quantity of remains and burnt stones’. The stones have vanished. Were they the ‘whetstones’ referred to by Hartshorne ?

page 35 note 1 The List of Books relating to Shropshire, first page (unnumbered) : ‘Accounts of various Fragments of Ancient Armour and Celts discovered upon the Wrekin Tenement, belonging to Lord Forester, with drawings, presented to the Society of Antiquaries, by T. F. Dukes, in 1834. Vide Archaeologta, xxvi, p. 464.’ It is regrettable that the drawings mentioned cannot be traced at Burlington House or in Shrewsbury.

page 35 note 2 H. J. E. Peake, The Bronze Age and the Celtic World (1921), pls. vi, xiv; chapters vii, viii.

page 35 note 3 Hartshorne, op. cit., plate facing p. 96. The text seems to suggest that he made a second drawing, not published; if this could be traced, it would be of considerable interest.

page 35 note 4 Greenwell and Parker Brewis, Archaeologia, lxi, p. 22, etc.

page 38 note 1 2nd ed., 1909, p. 101 (Methuen, Antiquary's Books).

page 38 note 2 Arch. Journ., xi, 414.

page 38 note 3 J. Randall, History of Madeley, p. 241.

page 38 note 4 Arch. Journ., viii, 197; xviii, 161 ; Proc. Soc. Ant., v, 430.

page 38 note 5 Op. cit., p. 97, n. I.

page 39 note 1 Bye-gones, 14th July 1909.

page 40 note 1 According to Sir John Evans (op. cit., p. 338) the ‘Wrekin Tenement’ hoard included barbed spear-heads (Class VI): possibly he had evidence not now available ; we have nothing to prove whether Hartshorne's no. 6 was of this type. At Congleton, Cheshire, a long specimen was found recently, associated with a lunate spear-head, a socketed celt with three ribs, and two ferrules (Antiq. Journ., vii, 62–4).

page 41 note 1 Vide supra, p. 3 6, note 1.

page 41 note 2 No attempt was made to ascertain the percentage of tin.

page 42 note 1 Op. cit., p. 95.

page 42 note 2 Proc. Soc. Antiq., xi, 8.

page 42 note 3 T. Wright, Uriconium (1872), p. 199; The Celt, the Roman, and the Saxon 5th ed., 1892), p. 20.

page 42 note 4 1st Annual Report, 1835–6. He died in 1881. No record of these celts can be found in the old Donations Books, and his only other gift, of this kind was spear-head and stones above referred to (p. 35). Wright's statement might be based on Dukes's bibliographical note (see above, p. 36, n. 1).

page 42 note 5 See opposite.

page 43 note 1 Exhibited to the Society of Antiquaries, 1873 ; Proceedings, v, 431–2. The Museum possesses a looped palstave found in 1890 in the Ercall Quarry, northeast of the Wrekin, but of this the full history and site are known (Salopian Shreds and Patches, 14 Jan. 1891, and information from finder's son), so it cannot be the one in question.

page 43 note 2 Other brief references to this hoard, not mentioned in the above paper, may be found in Arch. Camb., iii (4th Series), 338; Mont. Colls., iii, 437; Shrops. Arch. Trans., iv (2nd Series), 279; x (2), 108 ; and Kelly's Directory, Shropshire, under ‘Little Wenlock’, but these give no additional information.

page 43 note 3 Op. cit., 92 (the Tumuli), 94–5. ‘Having descended the hill from Little Wenlock, about fo yds. above the gate which stands upon the road, a very depressed vallum is passed through, which is just perceptible for about 20 yds. on the left hand side, and for about fo on the right. It may be again observed curving towards the Wrekin from the North end of a barn for the same distance. The land here has been under the plough, so that the mound is extremely indistinct. The tenant remembers both this and the Tumuli much more conspicuous than they are at present. They are in truth now almost undiscoverable without his assistance to point out where they lie. On the East side of the barn in three different meadows, are four slight mounds which have every sign of being artificial. In a rushy meadow at the bottom of the hill, on the left hand side of the road which leads from Little Wenlock to Wellington are appearances of three more Tumuli and on the other side of the road which goes into Wenlock Wood, due West of these, are two other Tumuli,' Some of these details are not easy to follow, as the gate on the road, the barn, and the vallum have disappeared, unless perchance the latter is the mound traversed by the road.

page 44 note 2 Facing p. 94. His indication of the mounds is almost concealed by shading. The flank of the Wrekin is on the left of the picture: the Ercall hill fills the centre of the view.

page 44 note 2 e.g. V.C.H., Shropshire, i, 203.

page 44 note 3 They are best seen on a quietly bright autumn morning if one faces sunward so that their shadows extend down the field. Hartshorne suggests that the place-name is derived from these ‘lows’ (AS. blæw, burial mound): certainly the willow tree forms no feature of the landscape. Though an artificial origin has hitherto been assumed for the mounds, it is not impossible that they may actually represent the small terminal moraine of a thin stream of ice which encircled the northern end of the Wrekin, penetrated the Forest Glen, and was baulked in its progress by the Little Wenlock ridge. Mr. Dwerryhouse, however, in his paper on ‘Drifts round the Wrekin’ (Glacialists' Magazine, iii, pp. 49 ff.) makes no mention of them. Nor are they marked on his map showing the glacial mounds of the locality. For this reference I am indebted to Miss D. Sylvester, B.A., University of Liverpool.

page 46 note 1 Shrops. Arch. Trans., 192.6, 4th Series, x, Misc., pp. xxx-xxxiii.

page 46 note 2 All in the possession of Major H. R. Moseley, Buildwas Abbey.

page 46 note 3 Hartshorne, op. cit., p. 168.

page 46 note 4 Arch. Camb., 1850, i (2), 331.

page 46 note 5 Bye-gones, 14 July 1909.

page 46 note 6 Rev. W. Houghton, ‘The Wealdmoors’, 1871, in Trans. Severn Valley F. Club, papers read 1865–73, p. 109.

page 47 note 1 Miss C. Eyton, Geology of North Shropshire, 1869, p. 89 ; Houghton, op. cit., pp. 106–7 ; Shrops. Arch. Trans., vii (1884), 349 ; site marked 6-in. O.S. Shrops. Sheet XXXVI, NW.

page 47 note 2 S.A.T., 1925, 4th Series, x, Misc., p. vii.

page 47 note 3 Recently presented to the North Staffs. Field Club Museum, Hanley.

page 47 note 4 Antiq. Journ., vii, 62–4.