Find Spot record MDO1186 - Bronze Age spear-head found at Hampton Hill, Frampton

From Muckleford Farm, Bradford Peverell, an LBA spear-head, socketed with loops at the base of the blade, found with ox bones, whilst digging out a badger in 1932. <1>

(SY 633935) Found by Mr Chell of Muckleford Farm, 600 yds due west of the farm, just in the borders of Frampton parish on a spur of Hampton Hill. At the findspot the subsoil is chalk 'but there had been some ancient disturbance'. The spear head, 24.8 ins long, may be ascribed to the transitional period M-LBA and about 1000BC. <2>

Purchased by the Dorset County Museum; Acc No. 1934.40.1. <4>

(SY 63529354) Found, whilst digging out a badger, in a mixture of chalk and soil about four feet below ground surface. Mr Chell pointed out on the ground the site of this find. The trench he dug is still visible in the rough pasture. There were no further finds. <5>

<1> Display Notice Dorset County Museum Dorchester (Graphic material). SDO17688.

<2> Dorset Natural History and Archaeological Society, 1933, Proceedings of the Dorset Natural History and Archaeological Society for 1932, 77 (Serial). SDO36.

‘This magnificent spear-head, the finest ever found in Dorset, was discovered by Mr. Chell, of Muckleford Farm, when digging out a badger in a small plantation on his land.
The site is 600 yards due west of Muckleford Farm, just within the borders of Frampton parish, on a spur of Hampton Hill. (6 inch Ordnance Map, Sheet XL, N.W., but the plantation is not shewn in the 1903 edition).
The subsoil is chalk, but at this spot there has been ancient disturbance, of which the badger had taken advantage in making his earth. In close association with the spear-head were many bones of ox, but no pottery or other relics.
The spear-head is 24.8 inches long. The hollow socket extends half-way up the blade. It is of the finest workmanship and finish and is in a mint state except for a slight chipping of one edge (probably caused during its extraction from the earth) and a slight crack in the mid-rib. The eyelet-holes, or "protected loops" in the lower part of the blade, as well as its general form, shew that it may be ascribed to the transitional period between the Middle and Late Bronze Age, [ref. <2>] about 1000 BC.
It was placed on loan in the Dorset County Museum for five months and then withdrawn by the owner.’

<3> V Gordon Child, 1930, The Bronze Age, 91 (Monograph). SDO12025.

<4> Dorset County Museum, Dorset County Museum Accessions Book (Unpublished document). SWX1315.

<5> Swatridge, G C, Various, Field Investigators Comments GCS, F1 GCS 24-JAN-55 (Unpublished document). SWX1169.

<5.1> Chell, Mr, Oral: Mr Chell, Muckleford, Bradford Peverell (Verbal communication). SDO20249.

<6> National Record of the Historic Environment, 453700 (Digital archive). SDO14739.

Record last edited

Oct 31 2023 2:54PM