Late Bronze Age hoard at Plantation Road (EHER 6179)

Late Bronze Age hoard found in 1984. The finds may be a 'founder's' or 'smith's' hoard. They are in the Chelmsford and Essex Museum.

Original HER entry merged with NRHE data import: Following the discovery of eleven bronze objects by Mr R. Wilkes of Plantation Road, a limited investigation of the site led to the recovery of a total of 37 objects. Further items were recovered from a metal detector survey and limited excavation. All the finds came from a disturbed context. No late Bronze Age features were found. Most of the finds came from a spread of subsoil that probably came from a pipe trench and associated man-hole dug when the house was built in 1964. The hoard consists of: 14 pieces of copper of bronze, 1 piece of plano-convex copper or bronze ingot, 8-possibly 10 whole or fragmentary socketed axes, a sword blade fragment, part of the shoulder of a sword of Ewart Park type (the blade probably similar to the preceding blade fragment), a bronze fragment-possibly a spear socket, a fragment of a winged axe, a fragment of a tanged knife, a fragment possibly from a cauldron, a small rectangular fragment, an unidentifiable bronze fragment, a socketed knife, a bronze fragment that is probably part of a knife socket, a fragment of bronze that may be an untrimmed part from the blade of a miscast axe. All the metalwork is of the Ewart Park phase, possibly the later part. The winged axe indicates overseas connections. With other finds from the Boreham-Little Baddow area, "it seems likely that these finds are indicative of a concentration of late Bronze Age activity in this area. The presence of a concentration of metalwork finds approximately 3.5km from the Springfield Enclosure may be significant in view of the evidence for metal production at that site". <1> - <4> Finds conserved and in Chelmsford Museum on long term loan. <5> Illustrations of objects. <6> Note: see EHER 6180 for other items found in Plantation Road that may have formed part of this hoard.