Find Spot record MDO8508 - Palaeolithic handaxes, Barrow Plot, Wick Lane, Bournemouth

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 from the Lower Palaeolithic to the Iron Age. The finds included nine Acheulian hand axes.

(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. 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 (Acheulian).
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, 1952, Bournemouth Area in Neolithic and Early Bronze Age times, p45-6 (Article in serial). SWX3647.

<2> Calkin, J B, and Green, J F N, 1949, Palaeoliths and terraces near Bournemouth, p36, figs p19 (Article in serial). SWX3670.

<3> Calkin, J B, Catalogue Druitt Collection, Red House Museum, Christchurch, p118-9 (Monograph). SWX4362.

<4> Roe, Derek A, 1968, A Gazetteer of British Lower and Middle Palaeolithic sites, 89 (Monograph). SWX4454.

<5> Exhibit, Red House Museum, Christchurch. (Artifact). SWX3651.

<6> Aldsworth, F G, Various, Field Investigators Comments FGA, F1 FGA 31-MAR-69 (Unpublished document). SWX1161.

<7> Wymer, J, 1993, The Southern Rivers Palaeolithic Project: the Upper Thames Valley, the Kennet Valley and the Solent drainage system, p 137 (Monograph). SWX4473.

<8> National Record of the Historic Environment, 458583 (Digital archive). SDO14739.

Record last edited

Nov 3 2023 1:19PM