Monday, November 16, 2009
Wednesday, September 30, 2009
Half a Denarii f’ me Bleedin’ Life Story?
A short announcement (before we get on). Unfortunately (or possibly 'fortunately' depending on how you look at it) this will be my last posting on this board for the time being. (Sounds of thunderous applause echoing down the streets.)
No, I haven't fallen out with anyone this time. (At least, I don't think I have.)
And, no, I haven't run out of history or stuff to tell you. (The day I run out of things to gab about will be the day that...well...somebody else manages to get a word in edgeways.)
The simple fact of the matter is, I just haven't got enough time for all this at the moment. Between excavations, writing reports on said excavations, refurbishing my fisherman's cottage from top to bottom, and various other time consuming adventures, I've run out of hours.
So, for the time being I'm on sabbatical, or as an old departed friend of mine would have had it: "On hiatus".
I'm not sure when I'll be back (might be weeks, might be years...but I will return, you can bank on that), but for now the forum is still open for business and, of course, you catch up with me (not to mention the rest of the Wyre Archaeology mob) at Wyrefield Farm every third Wednesday of the month, 7.15 p.m. onwards in the evening.
Enough...let's crack on with the designated post:
Some time ago we posted an article on this board concerning the number of Roman artefacts discovered around the Fylde and Wyre. The posting was designed more to put those misanthropic local anti-history buffs (who claim that the Romans never ventured into our neck of the woods) in their proper place, rather than as a serious attempt to catalogue the whole of our known Roman history.
Towards the end of the posting, however, we also mentioned that we didn’t have enough space left to include the ridiculous amount of Roman coins unearthed around the district over the last couple of centuries.
It’s time to fill that gap.
Let’s start with one of the best known of our local hoards. (I said ‘hoards’ before we get any libellous comments!)
On September the third 1926, at the back of Hackensall Hall, about five hundred coins were discovered in a virtually disintegrated leather purse beneath a rock. They consisted of Valerian I (A.D. 253 – 259), Valerian II, Gallienus and Salonina, running chronologically through Claudius II to Tetricus II (A.D. 271 – 273), three of which are shown in the photograph below...I think.
We might be about to get done for copyright infringement with that photograph. I’m hoping that it’s one Neil took when we went so see them, but I could be wrong.
Whatever the case, the hoard was probably buried around A.D. 275, a time of political upheaval when Britain had joined forces with a rebel movement against Rome known as the Independent Empire of Gauls. Several portraits on the Hackensall coins reflected this.
About four hundred of them are now housed by the British Museum, the Harris Museum, the Storey Institute in Lancaster and Liverpool City Museum.
When we visited Blackpool’s Grundy Art Gallery (which has, or at least did have until recently, its own little museum upstairs) the curators turned up another large portion of them, which was rather excellent, and which is where, I assume, the photograph above was taken.
On the other side of the river, sticking with rebel coins for the moment, John Davis-Allen of Wyre Archaeology informed us recently that a friend of his had been metal detecting around Stanah and had discovered another rare Roman coin showing the face of a rebel leader rather than that of the emperor. The coin was so freshly minted that, according to those in the know at the British Museum (or wherever it was that he sent it to be analysed), there was a probably a mint somewhere in the area.
This theory is borne out by the even more recent discovery by Gary Thornton (Wyre Archaeology Treasurer) of another freshly minted Roman coin in the same general area. (We’re not going to tell you where because you need permission to metal detect these fields, and just in case you’re thinking of risking it anyway, I ought to add that the law treats metal detectorists pillaging fields where they’re not supposed to be mercilessly, resulting in fines and confiscation of equipment…so you have been warned.)
Anyhow, we have also scan of that particular coin (with no potential copyright problems attached this time):
Again, because of its excellent condition, the experts reckon that the coin was minted within a few months of it being lost.
But enough about that, let’s move on to our second hoard, almost as well known as the Hackensall coins.
Charles Preston and John Fairclough discovered this collection of coins on Preesall Hill in 1934 when they were opening up the sand quarry. As Fairclough recalled in the ‘Over Wyre Historical Journals’:
“We had quarried back about forty yards from the entrance and had removed the turf and soil to a depth of approximately ten inches. At this depth I picked up the first coin.”
Obviously, after realising that the coin was Roman, both men suddenly found a new and amplified interest in their otherwise boring job and had soon uncovered a further twenty-two coins.
The sand, incidentally, was later used to create the bowling greens at the Marine Hall in Fleetwood. We’re saying nothing.
At this point we were going to include a photograph of the sandpit on Preesall Hill, but, true to form, we couldn’t find one. (We have got one somewhere, we just don’t know where unfortunately.) So, how about a general photograph of the view from Preesall Hill itself, copyright Juliette Gregson, who took this image at the same time we took the one of the sandpit but who had the foresight to store her photographs on the Internet, unlike us?
Up river to Poulton now and there’s always been a certain amount of speculation that St Chad’s church was originally a Roman fortlet. The Danes Pad appears to have run close by and a ditch originally surrounded the churchyard.
Adding to the speculation, William Thornber (the Victorian Antiquarian) recalled two copper coins from the time of Hadrian being found close by.
In the same vicinity (and still on line with the legendary Danes Pad) in September of 1852 at the railway station on the Breck another coin, this time a Domitian, was unearthed. (At that period, we perhaps ought to point out, the station was situated at the bottom of the hill opposite, what is nowadays, the Civic Centre.)
A quick turn around and back up to Fleetwood for our next find, which is mentioned in Philip Graystone’s book ‘Walking Roman Roads in the Fylde and the Ribble Valley’. This time the discovery was of two Nero coins (54 A.D. to 68 A.D.) and one coin of Augustus (27 B.C. to 14 A.D.).
And, in 1968 at Leyburn Avenue, a bronze coin dated to 22 B.C. emerged from somebody’s back garden.
According to David Shotter of Lancaster University, in 1991 another Roman coin, this time a Nero dupondius dated to A.D. 64, was unearthed in the same general area.
Then there’s the coin that was found umpty-tumpty years ago in a garden on Fleetwood Road. (We’ve got a newspaper article about it somewhere…back in the 30s I think it was found…which, predictably we’ve misplaced right at the moment.)
According to an article by Terry Statham in ‘Treasure Hunting’ magazine:
“…we have a record of a hoard of coins being found when the old Mount Pavilion was replaced in 1902.”
(We mention this article in particular because our ‘History of the Wyre’ book receives a mention in it, along with Wyre Archaeology, which is always good.)
Sticking with the Fleetwood Peninsula, it’s time for another whacking great hoard…possibly two.
In 1840 almost 400 Roman denarii were discovered by workmen in a brickfield belonging to Mr Walmsley between Rossall Point and Fenny. According to Thornber the hoard consisted of Vespasian Titus, Nerva, Trajan, Hadrian, Sabina, Antonius Pious, Faustina and numerous others. About forty of them ended up in Thornber’s hands and the rest became the property of Peter Hesketh (founder of Fleetwood). After Hesketh declared himself bankrupt the coins were sold to Alderman Brown whose son donated them to the Harris Museum in Preston.
Henry Fishwick, author of ‘The History of Poulton-le-Fylde’ published in 1885, noticed that the coins donated to the Harris bore no resemblance to those recorded by Thornber. In fact Thornber hadn’t even mentioned the Flavius Victor and Eugenius coins that the Harris had catalogued, which was highly unusual as such coins are extremely rare.
In 1887, however, W. Thompson Watkin also wrote about the discrepancy, reaching the conclusion that:
“...two hoards were found at the same place, one of the Higher, the other of the Lower Empire.”
Naturally we went to see the coins in the Harris, which were all brought out to us in sealed trays that, by the time they’d finished, had created a toppling tower on the desk.
We didn’t photograph them. We thought it best if they just put them back again and left it at that. Instead here’s an Ordnance Survey map (copyright infringement almost absolutely certain here) showing where they were found.
That’s under the golf course nowadays, so if you’re going to go out digging don’t say we haven’t warned you about the consequences.
Right, let’s not forget Blackpool in this lot (as if we could).
Just south of the Pleasure Beach, in 1907, at the junction of Clifton Drive and Burlington Road West (albeit before those roads existed) a Roman coin horde was discovered buried in the sand dunes. Alongside the coins, as marked on the 1911 Ordnance Survey map, were the remains of a building.
Three of the coins (nobody ever bothered to record exactly how many were excavated so they might represent the entire horde) are, once again, housed at the Grundy Art Gallery where, if you’re very polite, the curators will dig them out for you to have a look at. They’re a bit on the small side, which was why we drew the following picture of them rather than take a photograph (because our camera’s not very clever when it comes to macro shots).
Allen Clarke mentions them in his ‘Story of Blackpool’ in the following manner:
“These are three specimens of Roman Coins, now preserved in the Museum at Revoe Library, discovered in the Blackpool district. They are each three quarters of an inch in diameter and one eighth of an inch thick. They were struck at Alexandria, the first two during the reign of Gallienus (A.D. 259), and the third during the reign of Claudius II (A.D. 268)”
Unfortunately, archaeology being low on the political agenda in Victorian Blackpool, to the best of our knowledge no record of the wall against which they were buried was ever made, other than the few lines on the Ordnance Survey.
Clarke also mentions that a certain Mr. Willacy also discovered two coins of the Emperor Adrian at the ruins of the fortress at Dowbridge.
Michelle decided to check through some old back issues of the Evening Gazette (courtesy of Phil Barker – Master Butcher) to see what other Roman coins might have come to light and soon discovered the following reader’s letter:
“Dear Seasider,
I have read about the old coins that have been found, and have just looked up two old ones that were found on the Blackpool cliffs. An expert on these matters told me the copper coin was minted between 17 B.C. and 25 A.D. during the reign of Augustus. The Bronze coin is of Julius Caesar period and both are in very fair condition.”
And in the Evening Gazette dated Tuesday the 10th of August 1937 we find the following:
“An interesting find of a roman coin has been made at South Shore. Mr E. Creed of Horncliffe Road, whilst hoeing potatoes in his garden, turned up an ancient silver coin, proved to be a denarius of Julius Caesar, of the date 44 B.C. Parts of the coin are worn, but it is possible to decipher some of the letters and the design on it.”
And so on and so forth. I’m sure you’re starting to get the idea now.
Obviously this little lot doesn’t collate every single Roman coin ever found in the district, but the more mathematically inclined amongst our readers will have already worked out that we’re into the thousands by now, so perhaps it’s time we brought the article to a close.
No, I haven't fallen out with anyone this time. (At least, I don't think I have.)
And, no, I haven't run out of history or stuff to tell you. (The day I run out of things to gab about will be the day that...well...somebody else manages to get a word in edgeways.)
The simple fact of the matter is, I just haven't got enough time for all this at the moment. Between excavations, writing reports on said excavations, refurbishing my fisherman's cottage from top to bottom, and various other time consuming adventures, I've run out of hours.
So, for the time being I'm on sabbatical, or as an old departed friend of mine would have had it: "On hiatus".
I'm not sure when I'll be back (might be weeks, might be years...but I will return, you can bank on that), but for now the forum is still open for business and, of course, you catch up with me (not to mention the rest of the Wyre Archaeology mob) at Wyrefield Farm every third Wednesday of the month, 7.15 p.m. onwards in the evening.
Enough...let's crack on with the designated post:
Some time ago we posted an article on this board concerning the number of Roman artefacts discovered around the Fylde and Wyre. The posting was designed more to put those misanthropic local anti-history buffs (who claim that the Romans never ventured into our neck of the woods) in their proper place, rather than as a serious attempt to catalogue the whole of our known Roman history.
Towards the end of the posting, however, we also mentioned that we didn’t have enough space left to include the ridiculous amount of Roman coins unearthed around the district over the last couple of centuries.
It’s time to fill that gap.
Let’s start with one of the best known of our local hoards. (I said ‘hoards’ before we get any libellous comments!)
On September the third 1926, at the back of Hackensall Hall, about five hundred coins were discovered in a virtually disintegrated leather purse beneath a rock. They consisted of Valerian I (A.D. 253 – 259), Valerian II, Gallienus and Salonina, running chronologically through Claudius II to Tetricus II (A.D. 271 – 273), three of which are shown in the photograph below...I think.
We might be about to get done for copyright infringement with that photograph. I’m hoping that it’s one Neil took when we went so see them, but I could be wrong.
Whatever the case, the hoard was probably buried around A.D. 275, a time of political upheaval when Britain had joined forces with a rebel movement against Rome known as the Independent Empire of Gauls. Several portraits on the Hackensall coins reflected this.
About four hundred of them are now housed by the British Museum, the Harris Museum, the Storey Institute in Lancaster and Liverpool City Museum.
When we visited Blackpool’s Grundy Art Gallery (which has, or at least did have until recently, its own little museum upstairs) the curators turned up another large portion of them, which was rather excellent, and which is where, I assume, the photograph above was taken.
On the other side of the river, sticking with rebel coins for the moment, John Davis-Allen of Wyre Archaeology informed us recently that a friend of his had been metal detecting around Stanah and had discovered another rare Roman coin showing the face of a rebel leader rather than that of the emperor. The coin was so freshly minted that, according to those in the know at the British Museum (or wherever it was that he sent it to be analysed), there was a probably a mint somewhere in the area.
This theory is borne out by the even more recent discovery by Gary Thornton (Wyre Archaeology Treasurer) of another freshly minted Roman coin in the same general area. (We’re not going to tell you where because you need permission to metal detect these fields, and just in case you’re thinking of risking it anyway, I ought to add that the law treats metal detectorists pillaging fields where they’re not supposed to be mercilessly, resulting in fines and confiscation of equipment…so you have been warned.)
Anyhow, we have also scan of that particular coin (with no potential copyright problems attached this time):
Again, because of its excellent condition, the experts reckon that the coin was minted within a few months of it being lost.
But enough about that, let’s move on to our second hoard, almost as well known as the Hackensall coins.
Charles Preston and John Fairclough discovered this collection of coins on Preesall Hill in 1934 when they were opening up the sand quarry. As Fairclough recalled in the ‘Over Wyre Historical Journals’:
“We had quarried back about forty yards from the entrance and had removed the turf and soil to a depth of approximately ten inches. At this depth I picked up the first coin.”
Obviously, after realising that the coin was Roman, both men suddenly found a new and amplified interest in their otherwise boring job and had soon uncovered a further twenty-two coins.
The sand, incidentally, was later used to create the bowling greens at the Marine Hall in Fleetwood. We’re saying nothing.
At this point we were going to include a photograph of the sandpit on Preesall Hill, but, true to form, we couldn’t find one. (We have got one somewhere, we just don’t know where unfortunately.) So, how about a general photograph of the view from Preesall Hill itself, copyright Juliette Gregson, who took this image at the same time we took the one of the sandpit but who had the foresight to store her photographs on the Internet, unlike us?
Up river to Poulton now and there’s always been a certain amount of speculation that St Chad’s church was originally a Roman fortlet. The Danes Pad appears to have run close by and a ditch originally surrounded the churchyard.
Adding to the speculation, William Thornber (the Victorian Antiquarian) recalled two copper coins from the time of Hadrian being found close by.
In the same vicinity (and still on line with the legendary Danes Pad) in September of 1852 at the railway station on the Breck another coin, this time a Domitian, was unearthed. (At that period, we perhaps ought to point out, the station was situated at the bottom of the hill opposite, what is nowadays, the Civic Centre.)
A quick turn around and back up to Fleetwood for our next find, which is mentioned in Philip Graystone’s book ‘Walking Roman Roads in the Fylde and the Ribble Valley’. This time the discovery was of two Nero coins (54 A.D. to 68 A.D.) and one coin of Augustus (27 B.C. to 14 A.D.).
And, in 1968 at Leyburn Avenue, a bronze coin dated to 22 B.C. emerged from somebody’s back garden.
According to David Shotter of Lancaster University, in 1991 another Roman coin, this time a Nero dupondius dated to A.D. 64, was unearthed in the same general area.
Then there’s the coin that was found umpty-tumpty years ago in a garden on Fleetwood Road. (We’ve got a newspaper article about it somewhere…back in the 30s I think it was found…which, predictably we’ve misplaced right at the moment.)
According to an article by Terry Statham in ‘Treasure Hunting’ magazine:
“…we have a record of a hoard of coins being found when the old Mount Pavilion was replaced in 1902.”
(We mention this article in particular because our ‘History of the Wyre’ book receives a mention in it, along with Wyre Archaeology, which is always good.)
Sticking with the Fleetwood Peninsula, it’s time for another whacking great hoard…possibly two.
In 1840 almost 400 Roman denarii were discovered by workmen in a brickfield belonging to Mr Walmsley between Rossall Point and Fenny. According to Thornber the hoard consisted of Vespasian Titus, Nerva, Trajan, Hadrian, Sabina, Antonius Pious, Faustina and numerous others. About forty of them ended up in Thornber’s hands and the rest became the property of Peter Hesketh (founder of Fleetwood). After Hesketh declared himself bankrupt the coins were sold to Alderman Brown whose son donated them to the Harris Museum in Preston.
Henry Fishwick, author of ‘The History of Poulton-le-Fylde’ published in 1885, noticed that the coins donated to the Harris bore no resemblance to those recorded by Thornber. In fact Thornber hadn’t even mentioned the Flavius Victor and Eugenius coins that the Harris had catalogued, which was highly unusual as such coins are extremely rare.
In 1887, however, W. Thompson Watkin also wrote about the discrepancy, reaching the conclusion that:
“...two hoards were found at the same place, one of the Higher, the other of the Lower Empire.”
Naturally we went to see the coins in the Harris, which were all brought out to us in sealed trays that, by the time they’d finished, had created a toppling tower on the desk.
We didn’t photograph them. We thought it best if they just put them back again and left it at that. Instead here’s an Ordnance Survey map (copyright infringement almost absolutely certain here) showing where they were found.
That’s under the golf course nowadays, so if you’re going to go out digging don’t say we haven’t warned you about the consequences.
Right, let’s not forget Blackpool in this lot (as if we could).
Just south of the Pleasure Beach, in 1907, at the junction of Clifton Drive and Burlington Road West (albeit before those roads existed) a Roman coin horde was discovered buried in the sand dunes. Alongside the coins, as marked on the 1911 Ordnance Survey map, were the remains of a building.
Three of the coins (nobody ever bothered to record exactly how many were excavated so they might represent the entire horde) are, once again, housed at the Grundy Art Gallery where, if you’re very polite, the curators will dig them out for you to have a look at. They’re a bit on the small side, which was why we drew the following picture of them rather than take a photograph (because our camera’s not very clever when it comes to macro shots).
Allen Clarke mentions them in his ‘Story of Blackpool’ in the following manner:
“These are three specimens of Roman Coins, now preserved in the Museum at Revoe Library, discovered in the Blackpool district. They are each three quarters of an inch in diameter and one eighth of an inch thick. They were struck at Alexandria, the first two during the reign of Gallienus (A.D. 259), and the third during the reign of Claudius II (A.D. 268)”
Unfortunately, archaeology being low on the political agenda in Victorian Blackpool, to the best of our knowledge no record of the wall against which they were buried was ever made, other than the few lines on the Ordnance Survey.
Clarke also mentions that a certain Mr. Willacy also discovered two coins of the Emperor Adrian at the ruins of the fortress at Dowbridge.
Michelle decided to check through some old back issues of the Evening Gazette (courtesy of Phil Barker – Master Butcher) to see what other Roman coins might have come to light and soon discovered the following reader’s letter:
“Dear Seasider,
I have read about the old coins that have been found, and have just looked up two old ones that were found on the Blackpool cliffs. An expert on these matters told me the copper coin was minted between 17 B.C. and 25 A.D. during the reign of Augustus. The Bronze coin is of Julius Caesar period and both are in very fair condition.”
And in the Evening Gazette dated Tuesday the 10th of August 1937 we find the following:
“An interesting find of a roman coin has been made at South Shore. Mr E. Creed of Horncliffe Road, whilst hoeing potatoes in his garden, turned up an ancient silver coin, proved to be a denarius of Julius Caesar, of the date 44 B.C. Parts of the coin are worn, but it is possible to decipher some of the letters and the design on it.”
And so on and so forth. I’m sure you’re starting to get the idea now.
Obviously this little lot doesn’t collate every single Roman coin ever found in the district, but the more mathematically inclined amongst our readers will have already worked out that we’re into the thousands by now, so perhaps it’s time we brought the article to a close.
Thursday, September 24, 2009
Axes and Hammers -- Pilling’s Prehistoric Legacy: Part Two
So, in the last part of this article – doesn’t that sound impressive? This article…as though it’s all officious and legal like -- where was I? Oh yes, in the last part of this article we discussed some of the axes and adzes and bits and bobs of Neolithic/Bronze Age paraphernalia that have been unearthed around Pilling over the years.
We didn’t mention all of them, however. More have been discovered at Crookabreast Farm, Greengate Farm, Friars Hill, Ashtons Farm, Eskham House Farm, Kentucky Farm, Pea Hall Lane, Rough Holme Farm, Manor House Farm and the Bowers, amongst other places.
Pilling was a busy old place back in the Stone Age.
In fact there were so many axes in use back then that our Neolithic ancestors (most of them still going under the same five or six Pilling family names we all know and cherish nowadays no doubt) ended up chopping down all the forests that covered the area. That’s why Pilling is basically a bald and rather boggy place nowadays fit only for snorkelling sheep. (There’s a message in there somewhere, but I’m buggered if I can work out what.)
Onto hammers then, another important part of Neolithic Pilling-man’s tool kit. Hammers were used for all sorts of purposes, from countersinking poles to making more axes so that more trees could be chopped down and turned into poles to countersink.
Two perforated stone hammers were discovered at Pea Hall Wood, and another, illustrated below, turned up in the vicinity of Bradshaw Lane. (This one’s currently on display in the Fylde Country Life Museum, unless Oliver the sheep’s eaten it by now.)
It probably goes without saying, although I’m going to say it anyhow, the holes in the centre of these perforated stones would have originally accommodated their handles.
More hammers have been discovered at Greengate Farm, Bonds Farm, Birks Farm, Eagland Hill Farm, Hardman’s Wood, the Bowers and, in 1959, two were uncovered simultaneously at Eskham House Farm. I can only assume that Pilling was an extremely noisy place to live back then as well.
In the last part of this article (still sounds impressive) we also mentioned adzes, which, sometimes, were used to create boats. (There is a segue here.) At Well House Farm in 1926 an ancient canoe (told you) was uncovered whilst the farmer was digging a well. True to form the remains have now been lost despite the best efforts, in 1951, of the Pilling Historical Society who re-excavated the area but only uncovered a few scattered fragments of wood.
Now I know what you’re thinking. Canoes, in Pilling?
Yes, well these weren’t the white water rapid variety. They would have been used mainly for just getting around and/or trading locally. Don’t forget that, back in those days, Pilling was mainly swamp and forest, with plenty of streams meandering through it.
Several other Neolithic canoes have been uncovered around Lancashire such as those at Marton Mere (which were actually coracles, but nobody’s reading this any more so who cares?) and Preston Dock. The Preston dock canoe is in the Harris Museum if you want to take a look.
The other way to cross a Neolithic swamp, of course, was by wooden causeway.
Here’s what William Thornber wrote about the ‘Kate’s Pad’ in 1837:
“It is called Kate’s Pad from a tradition of the country people that two maiden ladies of that name constructed it to gratify an inveterate love of snuff which could not be obtained from any nearer mart than the county town.”
The tradition was wrong. Kate’s Pad was crossed in several places by the trunks of ancient trees placing it firmly prehistoric times.
In 1950 an excavation was carried out at Moss Cottage Farm and seventy yards of the track were traced.
The section illustrated below is on display at the Fylde Country Life Museum (upstairs on the balcony in the main section…in the Pilling Historic Society bit).
Kate’s Pad consisted of oak trees up to seventeen feet in length, split into three and laid on rushes. Some of the boards/planks (such as the one above) had large holes bored into one end suggesting that they might have been recycled from previous constructions, although a far more likely explanation would be that the holes were used to attach ropes to so that the planks could be dragged across ground.
Whatever the case, in the 1970s another section of the track was discovered at North Woods Hill Farm and in 1979 a further section unearthed at Eagland Hill. More wooden track ways were also discovered at Ashtons Farm in the 1930s and Chathill Farm in the 1950s.
Now…we were supposed to be talking about hammers in this section, weren’t we? Somewhere along the lines I appear to have been distracted. (What else is new?) So, hammers then – take a look at this:
Now, that might not look like much (because, as we’ve already explained, illustrations and photographs just do don’t do this sort of stuff any justice) but that’s a hammer that is.
Or, at any rate, it’s some sort of pounding device.
It was unearthed at Nateby and was probably used in the construction of the Nateby pile settlement (or whatever it was). What you can’t see in the picture are the carefully hollowed out indentations, the exact size and shape to accommodate a person’s fingers in order to maintain a sturdy grip on the object.
It’s now on display in the Fylde Country Life Museum…worth checking out I reckon.
At which point I’m suddenly going to stop this article for no particular reason other than I’ve run out of steam.
We didn’t mention all of them, however. More have been discovered at Crookabreast Farm, Greengate Farm, Friars Hill, Ashtons Farm, Eskham House Farm, Kentucky Farm, Pea Hall Lane, Rough Holme Farm, Manor House Farm and the Bowers, amongst other places.
Pilling was a busy old place back in the Stone Age.
In fact there were so many axes in use back then that our Neolithic ancestors (most of them still going under the same five or six Pilling family names we all know and cherish nowadays no doubt) ended up chopping down all the forests that covered the area. That’s why Pilling is basically a bald and rather boggy place nowadays fit only for snorkelling sheep. (There’s a message in there somewhere, but I’m buggered if I can work out what.)
Onto hammers then, another important part of Neolithic Pilling-man’s tool kit. Hammers were used for all sorts of purposes, from countersinking poles to making more axes so that more trees could be chopped down and turned into poles to countersink.
Two perforated stone hammers were discovered at Pea Hall Wood, and another, illustrated below, turned up in the vicinity of Bradshaw Lane. (This one’s currently on display in the Fylde Country Life Museum, unless Oliver the sheep’s eaten it by now.)
It probably goes without saying, although I’m going to say it anyhow, the holes in the centre of these perforated stones would have originally accommodated their handles.
More hammers have been discovered at Greengate Farm, Bonds Farm, Birks Farm, Eagland Hill Farm, Hardman’s Wood, the Bowers and, in 1959, two were uncovered simultaneously at Eskham House Farm. I can only assume that Pilling was an extremely noisy place to live back then as well.
In the last part of this article (still sounds impressive) we also mentioned adzes, which, sometimes, were used to create boats. (There is a segue here.) At Well House Farm in 1926 an ancient canoe (told you) was uncovered whilst the farmer was digging a well. True to form the remains have now been lost despite the best efforts, in 1951, of the Pilling Historical Society who re-excavated the area but only uncovered a few scattered fragments of wood.
Now I know what you’re thinking. Canoes, in Pilling?
Yes, well these weren’t the white water rapid variety. They would have been used mainly for just getting around and/or trading locally. Don’t forget that, back in those days, Pilling was mainly swamp and forest, with plenty of streams meandering through it.
Several other Neolithic canoes have been uncovered around Lancashire such as those at Marton Mere (which were actually coracles, but nobody’s reading this any more so who cares?) and Preston Dock. The Preston dock canoe is in the Harris Museum if you want to take a look.
The other way to cross a Neolithic swamp, of course, was by wooden causeway.
Here’s what William Thornber wrote about the ‘Kate’s Pad’ in 1837:
“It is called Kate’s Pad from a tradition of the country people that two maiden ladies of that name constructed it to gratify an inveterate love of snuff which could not be obtained from any nearer mart than the county town.”
The tradition was wrong. Kate’s Pad was crossed in several places by the trunks of ancient trees placing it firmly prehistoric times.
In 1950 an excavation was carried out at Moss Cottage Farm and seventy yards of the track were traced.
The section illustrated below is on display at the Fylde Country Life Museum (upstairs on the balcony in the main section…in the Pilling Historic Society bit).
Kate’s Pad consisted of oak trees up to seventeen feet in length, split into three and laid on rushes. Some of the boards/planks (such as the one above) had large holes bored into one end suggesting that they might have been recycled from previous constructions, although a far more likely explanation would be that the holes were used to attach ropes to so that the planks could be dragged across ground.
Whatever the case, in the 1970s another section of the track was discovered at North Woods Hill Farm and in 1979 a further section unearthed at Eagland Hill. More wooden track ways were also discovered at Ashtons Farm in the 1930s and Chathill Farm in the 1950s.
Now…we were supposed to be talking about hammers in this section, weren’t we? Somewhere along the lines I appear to have been distracted. (What else is new?) So, hammers then – take a look at this:
Now, that might not look like much (because, as we’ve already explained, illustrations and photographs just do don’t do this sort of stuff any justice) but that’s a hammer that is.
Or, at any rate, it’s some sort of pounding device.
It was unearthed at Nateby and was probably used in the construction of the Nateby pile settlement (or whatever it was). What you can’t see in the picture are the carefully hollowed out indentations, the exact size and shape to accommodate a person’s fingers in order to maintain a sturdy grip on the object.
It’s now on display in the Fylde Country Life Museum…worth checking out I reckon.
At which point I’m suddenly going to stop this article for no particular reason other than I’ve run out of steam.
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