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Monument details

HER Number:TR 16 NW 13
Type of record:Findspot
Name:Looped and socketed axe dredged up with two others a mile off Whitstable

Summary

A Late Bronze Age socketed bronze axe found in the sea off Whitstable. It was donated to Maidstone Museum by a Mr R Cooke in 1916, around the same time that 2 further axes (see TR 16 NW 14) were sold to the museum by a Mr Wells. All 3 were said to have been brought up together by oyster dredger from a spot nearly a mile from the shore. However, there is no firm evidence to link this axe with those reported by Mr Wells.


Grid Reference:TR 10 66
Map Sheet:TR16NW
Parish:WHITSTABLE, CANTERBURY, KENT

Monument Types

  • FINDSPOT (Middle Bronze Age to Late Bronze Age - 1200 BC to 701 BC)

Associated Finds

  • AXEHEAD (Bronze Age - 2350 BC to 701 BC)

Full description

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In the K.A.S. collection, and on exhibition in Maidstone Museum, is a small looped and socketed axe dredged up with two others a mile off Whitstable; about a dozen similar implements are said to have been found at this same spot in the past. The K.A.S. axe was a gift of Mr. R. Cooke in 1916; the other two went into the possession of a Mr. C. Wells and their subsequent history is unknown (1). Late Bronze Age socketed axehead (accession number 1916.182) donated to Maidstone Museum in 1916 by Mr R Cooke. The two axes mentioned by authority 1 as being in the possession of Mr Wells are recorded as TR 16 NW 14. The subsequent history of one is well known as it too is in Maidstone Museum. Despite the assertion above that Mr Cooke's and Mr Wells' axes were found together, there is in fact no extant evidence to support this assertion. Numerous axes have been found off Whitstable up to a mile from shore. In fact, Mr Wells (in 1916) wrote that "I understand the oyster dredgers know the exact place where they are found at look out for specimens". The earliest reported bronze find was discovered prior to 1879 (by Brent, who noted that the axe concerned was but "another example of the number of objects for the antiquary which this remarkable shoal is continually yielding"). It is suggested that at least a dozen socketed axes have been found in the same spot, although only a maximum of 8 are known for sure, and the whereabouts of only 4 (see associated records) are known today. 3 socketed axes with a Whitstable provenance, but about which nothing else is known, were formerly in the Ball collection, acquired by Hertfordshore Museum, St Albans in the 1930s and then sold by the museum circa 1949. The current whereabouts of these axes are unknown. (2, 3) Additional references (4).


<1> Maidstone Museum Arch Gaz (Anon undated) (OS Card Reference). SKE46406.

<2> F1 CRW 17.09.63 (OS Card Reference). SKE42854.

<3> Field report for monument TR 16 NW 13 - September, 1963 (Bibliographic reference). SKE5540.

<4> Canterbury Archaeological Trust, Canterbury Sites and Monuments Record, 13 (Index). SWX11836.

Sources and further reading

Cross-ref. Source description
<1>OS Card Reference: Maidstone Museum Arch Gaz (Anon undated).
<2>XYOS Card Reference: F1 CRW 17.09.63. [Mapped feature: #44193 Find, ]
<3>Bibliographic reference: Field report for monument TR 16 NW 13 - September, 1963.
<4>Index: Canterbury Archaeological Trust. Canterbury Sites and Monuments Record. 13.