Find Spot record MDO8512 - Bronze Age spearhead, Barrow Plot, Wick Lane, Bournemouth

A Bronze Age looped socketed spearhead was recovered from a field known as Barrow Plot on the south side of Wick Lane during gravel extraction in 1926-9.

A gravel pit in a plot of ground on the south side of Wick Lane adjacent to a barrow was active during 1926-9. Local antiquarian Herbert Druitt kept a close watch on this site and managed to recover a large quantity of finds dating from the Lower Palaeolithic to the Iron Age. The finds included a looped socketed spearhead with a very pronounced midrib. (1)(2)

Ordnance Survey, Ordnance Survey Records, SZ 19 SE 19 (Index). SDO131.

(SZ 15259210) In 1926 a gravel pit was opened in the plot of ground on the south side of Wick Lane, gravel digging starting 12 yds from the western edge of the barrow (See SZ 19 SE 21).

During the following 3 years almost an acre was excavated, and a great deal of the pottery found was saved and taken into the Druitt Collection, as well as Pa and Ne implements.

The following items were found
PA 9 hand axes (Acheulion).
Ne'A' 2 leaf arrowheads; 5 flint axes.
Me 12 transverse arrowheads; 1 axe or adze of stone; 1 plano-convex
knife; 1 microlith; 7 picks.
EBA 2 Barbed and tanged arrowheads; 1 discoidal knife.
MBA four urns (tripartite): 1 bronze spearhead.
LBA 11 urns or cremations (barrel & bucket urns).
LBA/EIA 1 urn, and few fragments of IA 'A' pottery. (1-4).

Possible bucket urns found near earlier barrow at Wick Lane; now in the Druitt Collection (a).

MBA Spearhead: Socketed with loops half-way along the socket. A very pronounced mid-rib to the blade (5).

The site of the gravel pit has now been built over. (6)

<1> Calkin, J B, 1934, The Book of Bournemouth, 101, fig 37 (Monograph). SWX3649.

<1> Calkin, J B, 1952, Bournemouth Area in Neolithic and Early Bronze Age times, 45-46 (Article in serial). SWX3647.

Record last edited

Sep 27 2013 5:25PM