Late Bronze Age hoard found at Chardwell Farm, Highfield, Arkesden (EHER 3895)

Bronze hoard found at Chardwell Farm in 1872 - found in a hollow surrounded by stones.

Original HER entry merged with NRHE data import: A bronze age founder's hoard found at Highfield, Arkesden in 1872, during land drainage. Objects were apportioned by the workmen. The local plumber refused to buy on legal grounds. Some were bought by J. Clarke, others by Charles Karwarding. The objects were found around 2ft below the surface in a hole containing bronze implements and ashes - "it was about the shape of a pail and was surrounded by pebble stones". The author procured: three celts, the lower part of a bright bronze implement, part of a broad dagger-very bent, the middle portion of a stout sword with a stout rib, a spearhead, two pieces of honeycombed rough metal. The remainder: thirteen celts, all strongly made, a spearhead with the point broken off, a celt mould, a large 'brass ring' of the "sort which antiquarians believe to have been occasionally substituted for money", unused pieces of metal of different sizes but similar in fabric "like a very coarse sponge, with no marks of a tool upon them but broken into lumps of different dimensions..". <1> According to OS card between 50-60 bronze implements including axes, spearheads, broken sword blades, dagger blades and lumps of fused metal were found in 1872 in a vase of rough earthenware. Some of the implements are now in Saffron Walden Museum. <2> Another socketed axe - Accession No CLXIX may be from this hoard but this is not clear. <3> Drawings taken from the Transactions of the Historical Society of Lancashire and Cheshire show: socketed axes, flanged axes, winged axes?, spearheads, part of a sword or dagger blade and a mould for a socketed axe. This reference is also given for the Chrishall-Elmdon hoard and so there is possible conflation of different sites. <4> There is a suggestion that Arkesden was on a routeway in the late bronze age, used by bronze-smiths who perhaps had dumps of scrap bronze at specified points. <5> Also siting of hoard is not confirmed. Possibly it has been confused with the Hatfield Broad Oak hoard which was also found in a pot (0000). Some of the hoard in Saffron Walden Museum includes: parts of bronze celts, two nuggets of bronze, a bronze spearhead, a bronze ribbed spearhead, part of a bronze dagger blade - two of these (or possibly a sword?). <6> The hoard was dispersed and some of the implements went to Saffron Walden Museum and Mayer Collection, Liverpool. <7> Three axes are in E. Taylor's Collection. The mould and remaining finds are now lost. <8> Another is in Ashmolean Museum, Oxford. <9> A socketed axe is in Museum of Arch. and Ethnology, Cambridge. <10> 1975. Field survey. No further information. The exact find spot of the hoard was not known at Chardwell Farm. <11> See also: <12> <13>