Archaeology

The following is a transcript of an academic text which appeared in 'Contrebis', the journal of Lancaster Archaeological and Historical Society in 1975'

The Wegber Quarry Finds

by S.H. Penney

At a meeting in Lancaster Archaeological and Historical Society Manchester in January, 1884, the Earl of Crawford and Balcarres, exhibited before the Lancashire and Cheshire Antiquarian Society, 'a number of stone, bronze and iron implements found about 17 feet below the surface of the ground in a fissure in a limestone quarry at Wegber near Carnforth'

Wegber Quarry, which was owned by the Earl of Crawford and Balcarres, is situated some two miles north-east of Carnforth on a hill which rises above the River Keer north of the village of Capernwray. A few further details of the discovery appear in that years volume of "The Antiquary" (vol. 9 1884. 139-140), which reports that the finds were made in a "small chamber" which was revealed during rock blasting operations. The finds are reported to have included "a large perforated stone hammer, beautifully formed", "a stone quern", "a bronze celt or axe-head of the ordinary type", "a fine socketed spearhead", "a portion of a bronze sword", a fine axe head of iron" and "a spinning wheel".

These two contemporary accounts furnish us with all that is known of the circumstances of the discovery and the range of items found.

In 1974, Dr. Andrew White, then of the Lancaster Museum, ascertained from the then Earl of Crawford and Balcarres that four bronzes from Wegber Quarry remained in the family home at Balcarres in Fife. Through the kindness of his Lordship these items were loaned to Lancaster Museum for recording and copying. The surviving finds from Wegber Quarry are here fully published.

They comprise:

1. An Early Bronze age flat axe of the narrow or thin butted type which equates with Coles' type Ba (Coles 1968-69) of the Scottish series and Harbinson's type Ballyvalley (Harbison 1968,35) of the Irish series. It is 13.1 cms. in length, 6.2 cms. wide at the cutting edge and has a maximum thickness of 0.9 cms. This axe is of some importance for Lancashire being one of only a small number of flat axes to have been found in this country. It dates from the early part of the 2nd millennium B.C.
2. A Midddle Bronze Age dirk which is now 20.5 cms. long having been broken off at the 3.5 cms. wide base of the blade. The lozenge sectioned blade shows signs of considerable wear. Due to the small size and simple blade form it would appear to belong to Group 1 of Trump's classification. This rather assorted group is assigned by her to M.B.A.I. (c 1400-1200 B.C.) although the almost complete absence of associated finds makes close dating of this group somewhat speculative (Trump 1962,84). The lost hafting plate is likely to have been pierced by two rivet holes. Only a small number of Midd1e Bronze Age dirks and rapiers are known from north-west England; this is the only positively identified dirk to have been recorded from Lancashire, although the butt end of a badly corroded implement from Si1verdale is possibly a dirk (Contrebis 2:1, 49) A broadly contemporary Group 11 rapier of the Keelogue class is known from A1dingham (Trump 1962, 96).
3. A Late Bronze Age socketed axe which is 12.2 cms. in length, 7.2 cms. across its wide splaying cutting-edge and which has a maximum socket diameter of 3.4 cms. It is rectangular in section. The moulding around the socket carries two cordons, the lower one of which consists of only a faint corrugation. This axe conforms to no particular regional grouping but probably dates from the 8th or 9th century B.C.
4. A 20.8 cms. long spearhead which has a maximum width of 6.1 cms. and a 2.0 cms. wide socket which extends into the lozenge-sectioned blade. The circular holes drilled through the lower part of the blade are an unusual feature, but one which is closely paralleled on a spearhead from a founder's hoard from Wilburton in Cambridgeshire; a spearhead from Naworth Castle in Cumbria is similarly perforated (Evans 1881. 333). The association of such a spearhead at Wilburton with a more common type of Late Bronze Age spearhead with cast lunate openings in the blade demonstrates the contemporaneity of the two types. The drilled holes would seem to have been an attempt to reproduce the often elegantly cast lunate openings by technologically simpler means. An 8th-9th century B.G. date seems probable.

It is evident that the Wegber Quarry finds in no way comprise a hoard. The earliest of the surviving bronzes, dates from the Early Bronze Age whilst the record of an iron axe demonstrates the continuing use of the site at a time unlikely to pre-date the Romano-British period; in short, the recorded finds span a period in excess of 1,500 years. It has been suggested that the finds from Wegber Quarry may point to the use of the site as a votive pit (Harrison 1974, 35). Whilst a votive context cannot be ruled out this would seem improbable for as already noted it would have involved the veneration of the same site for over a millennium and a half. Whilst springs, wells, pits and shafts formed receptacles for votive offerings during the pre-Roman Iron Age such ritual is not known to have occurred prior to the Late Bronze Age. Whilst no details are known of the extent of the small chamber revealed during quarrying there would seem to be a strong likelihood that the Wegber Quarry finds, indicate the intermittent occupation during prehistoric and posbib1y later times of a now destroyed cave or rock shelter. The presence of a quern-stone of whatever date certainly suggests a domestic context. It is made clear in "The Antiquary" that the itmes from Wegber Quarry there listea are only a selection of the total finds; the possibility exists that any more mundane objects which may have been picked up by the quarry workers remained unrecorded. Inevitably other material may have gone unrecognised.

Several other caves in the north-west have produced Bronze Age material. In Cumbria a small number-of bronzes were found during the 19th century excavations of Kirkhead Cavern near Ulverston (Ecroyd Smith 1865,226); the rather vague terminology used in the excavation report makes positive identification difficult, although a tanged chisel of Late Bronze Age type was present (Evans 1881, 168). Victoria Cave near Settle in Yorkshire has produced a bag-shaped socketed axe (King 1974, 192). Bronze Age urn fragments have been found in Fairy Roles Cave, at Whitewell, in Bowland Forest, (Musson 1947, 168) and Heaning Wood Cave in Cumbria (Harrison 1974, 35). Whilst the occupation of caves during the Bronze Age seems in many ways surprising, even if it was only on a temporary basis, in only one or two cases are there good grounds for believing the deposits to be solely funerary in nature (e.g. Heaning Wood). One has only to turn to the accounts of the discoveries at the Heathery Burn Cave near Stanhope in Co. Durham to appreciate the material wealth which some Late Bronze Age cave-dwelling communities enjoyed (Britton 1971).

A perforated stone axe of micaceous sandstone (Lancaster Museum 242) from Borwick, less than half a mile to the north of Wegber Quarry, provides additional evidence of a Bronze Age presence in the vicinity.

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