List of Bronze Age hoards in Great Britain facts for kids
The list of Bronze Age hoards in Britain comprises significant archaeological hoards of jewellery, precious and scrap metal objects and other valuable items discovered in Great Britain (England, Scotland and Wales) that are associated with the British Bronze Age, approximately 2700 BC to 8th century BC. It includes both hoards that were buried with the intention of retrieval at a later date (personal hoards, founder's hoards, merchant's hoards, and hoards of loot), and also hoards of votive offerings which were not intended to be recovered at a later date, but excludes grave goods and single items found in isolation.
List of hoards
| Hoard | Image | Date | Place of discovery | Year of discovery | Current Location | Contents |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Arreton Down Hoard | 1700-1500 BC | Arreton Down, Isle of Wight 50°40′55″N 1°14′13″W / 50.68196°N 1.23703°W |
1735 | British Museum, London | 7 bronze spear-heads, 4 axes, 1 dagger, 1 halberd | |
| Auchnacree Hoard | 23rd to 21st century BC | Auchnacree Angus 56°45′N 2°53′W / 56.75°N 2.88°W |
1921 | Museum of Scotland, Edinburgh | 2 bronze knives 3 bronze axeheads 1 bronze armlet |
|
| Beachy Head Hoard | 1400-750 BC | Beachy Head, East Sussex 50°44′37″N 0°13′58″E / 50.7436494°N 0.2327261°E |
1824 | British Museum, London | 4 gold penannular bracelets | |
| Beaumaris Hoard | 1400-1100 BC | Beaumaris, Anglesey 53°16′02″N 4°05′35″W / 53.267093°N 4.093126°W |
1849 | British Museum, London | 2 gold penannular bracelets | |
| Bexley Hoard | 1000-750 BC | Bexley, London 51°27′36″N 0°06′29″E / 51.45996°N 0.108089°E |
1906 | British Museum, London | 17 gold penannular bracelets (one broken in half) | |
| Boughton Malherbe Hoard | 9th century BC | Boughton Malherbe Kent 51°13′N 0°41′E / 51.21°N 0.69°E |
2011 | Maidstone Museum & Art Gallery | 352 bronze objects of types commonly found in northern France, comprising 75 bronze weapon fragments, 136 bronze tools and tool fragments, 42 bronze ornaments, and about 71 bronze ingots, moulds and miscellaneous objects. | |
| Burnham-on-Crouch Hoard |  |
Bronze Age | Burnham-on-Crouch Essex 51°37′41″N 0°48′54″E / 51.628°N 0.815°E |
2010 | Colchester and Ipswich Museums | pottery vessel filled with bronze axes and other metalwork |
| Burton Hoard |  |
13th to mid 12th century BC | Burton, Wrexham Clwyd 53°06′18″N 2°57′54″W / 53.105°N 2.965°W |
2004 | National Museum Cardiff | 2 bronze palstaves 1 bronze chisel 1 gold torc 1 gold twisted-wire bracelet 1 gold necklace pendant 4 gold beads 3 gold rings 1 pottery vessel |
| Chrishall Hoard | 1300-800 BC | Chrishall, Essex 52°01′58″N 0°06′26″E / 52.032798°N 0.107231°E |
c. 1853 | British Museum, London | 5 bronze axes, 3 swords, 1 ingot, 1 spear-head | |
| Collette Hoard | 10th to 9th century BC | Berwick upon Tweed Northumberland 55°46′16″N 2°00′25″W / 55.771°N 2.007°W |
2005 | Great North Museum, Newcastle upon Tyne | 6 socketed axes, 6 gold lock rings, and various bracelets, rings and pins | |
| Corbridge Hoard | Middle Bronze Age | Corbridge Northumberland 54°57′43″N 1°59′46″W / 54.962°N 1.996°W |
1835 | Blackgate Museum Bailiffgate Museum |
fragments of two spearheads pieces of dagger blades a flanged axe |
|
| Crundale Hoard | 8th to 9th century BC | Crundale Kent 51°12′07″N 0°58′26″E / 51.202°N 0.974°E |
2003 | Museum of Canterbury | 188 fragments (including axe, chisel, palstave, hammer, gouge, knife, sickle, sword, bracelet, ring, and ingots) | |
| Driffield Hoard I |  |
Late Bronze Age | Driffield, East Riding of Yorkshire 54°00′00″N 0°26′42″W / 54.000°N 0.445°W |
2016 | 14 bronze socketed axes and 13 bronze ingot fragments. | |
| Driffield Hoard II | Late Bronze Age | Driffield, East Riding of Yorkshire 54°00′00″N 0°26′42″W / 54.000°N 0.445°W |
2016 | 36 complete and 23 broken or fragmented socketed bronze axes, two nearly complete bun-shaped bronze ingots, and 91 bronze ingot fragments. | ||
| Duddingston Loch Hoard | 950–750 BC | Duddingston Loch Edinburgh 55°56′N 3°09′W / 55.94°N 3.15°W |
1778 | Museum of Scotland, Edinburgh | 44 bronze items consisting of the ring of a large cauldron and fragments of spearheads, swords and dagger blades; point of a bronze spearhead; contorted bronze sword, broken in two, with three rivet holes and a slot in the hilt plate; contorted point of a bronze sword; blade of a bronze sword broken off under the hilt and bent back at the point. | |
| Eggleston Hoard | 1000-750 BC | Eggleston, County Durham 54°36′00″N 2°00′00″W / 54.600°N 2.000°W |
2019 | Several bronze spearheads and knives, as well as some amber and jet beads | ||
| Fittleworth Hoard | 1400-1100 BC | Fittleworth, West Sussex 50°57′56″N 0°33′50″W / 50.965636°N 0.563789°W |
1995 | British Museum, London | 2 gold penannular bracelets, 35 gold bars, 2 fragments of a torc, 2 rings | |
| Gaerwen Hoard | 1000-750 BC | Gaerwen, Anglesey 53°15′15″N 4°18′09″W / 53.254243°N 4.302382°W |
1852 | British Museum, London | 2 gold lock rings, 2 gold penannular bracelets | |
| Havering hoard | 900-800 BCE | Rainham, London (undisclosed site) |
2018 | Unknown (exhibited at Museum of London Docklands from 3 April to 25 October 2020 and subsequently at Havering Museum) | Swords, socketed axe heads, spear heads, knives, daggers, woodwork tools, bracelets, ingots, and other items, weighing more than 45 kg in total | |
| Heathery Burn Cave Hoard | 1000-750 BC | Heathery Burn Cave, County Durham 54°45′56″N 2°01′15″W / 54.765549°N 2.020794°W |
1866 | British Museum, London, Ashmolean Museum, Oxford, Yorkshire Museum, York | 1 gold penannular bracelet, 1 gold lock-ring, 36 bronze awls, 20 pins, 14 axes, 11 rings, 11 cheek-pieces, 10 bracelets, 10 spear-heads, 8 pendants, 7 vessels, 6 wheels, 6 spatulas, 2 toggles, 2 knives, 2 swords, 4 scoops or chisels, 4 phaleras, casting moulds, fittings, a bowl and a bucket plus other miscellaneous items | |
| Heights of Brae Hoard | 8th to 7th century BC | Heights of Brae Dingwall, Highland 57°36′58″N 4°28′34″W / 57.616°N 4.476°W |
1967 and 1979 | Museum of Scotland, Edinburgh | 3 gold cup-ended ornaments, 5 gold penannular armlets, and 1 corrugated gold band (a cup-ended ornament, a pennanular armlet and two additional items that are now lost were found during ploughing in 1967; the remaining seven items were found during archaeological investigation in 1979). | |
| Hollingbourne Hoard |  |
10th to 9th century BC | Hollingbourne Kent 51°16′01″N 0°38′28″E / 51.267°N 0.641°E |
2003 | Maidstone Museum & Art Gallery | 12 bronze axes and axe fragments 2 bronze sword hilt fragments 6 bronze sword blade fragments 2 bronze spearhead fragments 14 bronze ingots |
| Hollingbury Hoard | 1400-1250 BC | Hollingbury, East Sussex 50°51′32″N 0°08′42″W / 50.8589774°N 0.145044°W |
1825 | British Museum, London | 4 bronze armlets, 3 rings, 1 palstave, 1 torc | |
| Horsehope Craig Hoard | 7th to 6th century BC | near Peebles, Peeblesshire 55°34′38″N 3°15′40″W / 55.577200°N 3.261175°W |
1865 | Tweeddale Museum and Gallery, Peebles and National Museum of Scotland | 15 bronze rings, 2 socketed axes, 1 rapier, 28 objects in all, thought to be elements of horse harness and cart mountings | |
| Husband's Bosworth Hoard | Late Bronze Age | Husbands Bosworth Leicestershire 52°27′11″N 1°03′22″W / 52.453°N 1.056°W |
1801 | unknown | 4 looped and socketed celts 2 socketed celts 3 socketed gouges 2 spearheads 1 flat ferrule |
|
| Isleham Hoard | 8th century BC | Isleham Cambridgeshire 52°20′35″N 0°26′28″E / 52.343°N 0.441°E |
1959 | West Stow Anglo-Saxon Village Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology, University of Cambridge |
6,500 pieces of worked and unworked bronze | |
| Lambourn Hoard |  |
14th to 12th century BC | Lambourn Berkshire 51°30′32″N 1°31′52″W / 51.509°N 1.531°W |
2004 | West Berkshire Museum | 2 gold armlets 3 gold bracelets |
| Langdon Bay Hoard | 13th century BC | In the English Channel at Langdon Bay Kent 51°07′48″N 1°21′04″E / 51.13°N 1.351°E |
1974 | British Museum, London | 360 items of scrap metal, including bronze axes of a French type | |
| Langton Matravers Hoard | 7th century BC | Langton Matravers, near Swanage Dorset 50°36′32″N 2°00′22″W / 50.609°N 2.006°W |
2008 | Dorset County Museum, Dorchester | 276 complete socketed bronze axes, 107 halves of socketed bronze axes and 117 fragments of socketed bronze axes in three adjacent pits and one pit further away | |
| Lewes Hoard |  |
16th to 12th century BC | near Lewes East Sussex 51°04′N 2°05′W / 51.06°N 2.08°W |
2011 | 79 objects in a pottery vessel, including 3 bronze palstaves, 5 bronze bracelets, 8 bronze finger rings, 4 bronze tutuli (also known as Monkswood ornaments), 4 gold discs, 1 bronze pin, 19 amber beads and 4 bronze torcs | |
| Llanarmon-yn-Iâl Hoard | 16th to mid 8th century BC | Llanarmon-yn-Iâl Denbighshire 53°06′00″N 3°12′36″W / 53.100°N 3.210°W |
1982 | Amgueddfa Cymru – National Museum Wales | 1 socketed bronze axe, 2 gold bracelets, a broken gold link, and a gold ingot | |
| Lockington Hoard | 21st to 20th century BC | Lockington Leicestershire 52°50′53″N 1°18′29″W / 52.848°N 1.308°W |
1994 | British Museum, London | fragments of 2 Beaker style pots 1 copper alloy dagger 2 embossed gold-sheet armlets |
|
| Manorbier Hoard | 10th to 9th century BC | Manorbier Dyfed 51°39′N 4°48′W / 51.65°N 4.80°W |
2010 | 19 bronze and copper artefacts, including socketed axes, a gouge, a piece of a sword blade, a circular dish-headed pin, ingots and bronze casting bi-products | ||
| Marston St. Lawrence Hoard | 1300-800 BC | Marston St. Lawrence, Northamptonshire 52°04′42″N 1°13′15″W / 52.078284°N 1.220759°W |
c.1897 | British Museum, London | 4 bronze spear-heads, 2 swords, 2 stone whetstones, 1 bracelet, 1 ferrule | |
| Meldreth Hoard | 1300-800 BC | Meldreth, Cambridgeshire 52°06′04″N 0°00′24″E / 52.101092°N 0.006779°E |
1880 | British Museum, London | 25 bronze axes, 15 ingots, 5 spear-heads, 4 swords, 2 bucket handles, 1 gouge, 1 razor, 1 finger ring, 1 chisel | |
| Mickleham Hoard | 10th to 11th century BC | Mickleham Surrey 51°16′05″N 0°19′16″W / 51.268°N 0.321°W |
2003 | 2 socketed axes 1 chape |
||
| Migdale Hoard | 23rd to 20th century BC | Bonar Bridge Sutherland 57°54′14″N 4°19′37″W / 57.904°N 4.327°W |
1900 | Museum of Scotland, Edinburgh | 1 bronze axe head sets of bronze bangles and anklets a set of jet and cannel coal buttons bronze hair ornaments fragments of a bronze headdress |
|
| Milton Keynes Hoard |  |
mid 12th to late 9th century BC | Monkston, Milton Keynes Buckinghamshire 52°02′10″N 0°42′00″W / 52.036°N 0.700°W |
2000 | British Museum, London | 2 gold torcs 3 gold bracelets 1 bronze fragment 1 pottery vessel |
| Moor Sand Hoard | 13th century BC | Off Prawle Point, near Salcombe Devon 50°12′00″N 3°43′30″W / 50.200°N 3.725°W |
1977 | British Museum, London | six bronze swords or sword fragments and two bronze palstaves | |
| Morvah Hoard | 1000-750 BC | Morvah, Cornwall 50°09′40″N 5°38′18″W / 50.161148°N 5.638244°W |
1884 | British Museum, London | 6 gold penannular bracelets | |
| New Bradwell (or Wolverton) Hoard | mid 12th to late 9th century BC | New Bradwell, Milton Keynes Buckinghamshire 52°03′54″N 0°47′53″W / 52.065°N 0.798°W |
1879 | Buckinghamshire County Museum | 9 bronze socketed axes 3 broken axes 1 palstave 2 spearheads a leaf-shaped sword (broken into 4 pieces) |
|
| Parc-y-Meirch Hoard | 9th century BC | Dinorben hillfort, near Abergele Conwy 53°16′05″N 3°32′56″W / 53.268°N 3.549°W |
pre-1868 | National Museum Cardiff | over 100 items of bronze horse harness fittings | |
| Peebles Hoard (unofficial name as of 10 August 2020[update]) | 9th century BC ?? | (undisclosed site) near Peebles | 2020 | National Museums Scotland | bronze horse harness fittings | |
| Plymstock Hoard | 2150-1600 BC | Plymstock, Devon 50°21′25″N 4°05′24″W / 50.356944°N 4.09°W |
1869 | British Museum, London | 12 bronze axes, 3 daggers, 1 spear-head, 1 chisel | |
| Rossett Hoard |  |
10th to 9th century BC | Rossett Wrexham 53°06′32″N 2°56′42″W / 53.109°N 2.945°W |
2002 | National Museum Cardiff | 1 faceted axe 1 tanged knife 4 pieces of gold bracelet stored inside the axe |
| Selborne Hoard | 1400-1250 BC | Woolmer Forest near Selborne, Hampshire 51°05′02″N 0°51′31″W / 51.083993°N 0.858523°W |
1840 | British Museum, London | 3 bronze armlets, 2 rings, 1 bracelet, 1 spear-head, 1 palstave | |
| St Erth hoards |  |
8th to 9th century BC | St Erth Cornwall 50°09′58″N 5°26′13″W / 50.166°N 5.437°W |
2002–2003 | Royal Cornwall Museum | 2 gold ornament fragments Bronze/copper hoard 1: 5 sword pieces, 3 socketed axe pieces, 1 socketed gouge piece, 1 knife fragment, 1 plate-like fragment, 16 ingot fragments or amorphous lumps Bronze/copper hoard 2: 1 winged axe, 1 plate-like spill, 15 ingot fragments |
| St Mellons Hoard | Late Bronze Age | St Mellons, Cardiff Glamorgan 51°31′08″N 3°06′50″W / 51.519°N 3.114°W |
1983 | National Museum Cardiff | 25 bronze socketed axes and one casting jet | |
| Stogursey Hoard (1870) | 8th century BC | Wick Farm, Stogursey Somerset 51°11′20″N 3°06′40″W / 51.189°N 3.111°W |
1870 | Museum of Somerset | 20 sword fragments 29 socketed axes 37 socketed axe fragments 2 palstaves 2 gouges 2 knives or daggers 1 chape 20 spearheads 34 other bronze fragments |
|
| Stonnall Hoard |  |
Bronze Age | Gainsborough Hill Farm, Stonnall Staffordshire 52°37′19″N 1°53′28″W / 52.622°N 1.891°W |
1824 | Unknown | 2 swords 1 spearhead and 2 fragments of same 4 ferrules 2 cylinders 3 rings 2 pommels 3 celts 1 lump of copper 1 lump of lead |
| Stretham Hoard | 1300-1000 BC | Stretham, Cambridgeshire 52°21′00″N 0°13′14″E / 52.349933°N 0.220663°E |
1850 | British Museum, London, Hunt Museum, Limerick | 1 gold torc, 1 gold bracelet, 6 ribbed rings, 1 bronze rapier | |
| Tarves Hoard | 1000-850 BC | Tarves, Aberdeenshire 57°21′26″N 2°13′24″W / 57.3570858°N 2.2234368°W |
1858 | British Museum, London | 3 bronze swords, 1 pommel, 1 chape and 2 pins | |
| Tisbury Hoard |  |
9th to 8th century BC | Tisbury Wiltshire 51°04′N 2°05′W / 51.06°N 2.09°W |
2011 | 114 bronze items, including weapons and tools (sword hilts, sword blades, spearheads, axeheads, gouges, chisels, sickles and knives), pieces of jewellery, razors and other miscellaneous items | |
| Tisbury Treasure | 1100-750 BC | Tisbury, Wiltshire 51°04′N 2°05′W / 51.06°N 2.09°W |
Before 1897 | British Museum, London | 6 gold penannular bracelets | |
| Towednack Hoard | 10th century BC | Towednack Cornwall 50°11′28″N 5°31′12″W / 50.191°N 5.520°W |
1931 | British Museum, London | 2 twisted gold neckrings 4 gold bracelets 3 lengths of gold rod |
|
| Urquhart Hoard | 1400-1100 BC | Urquhart, Moray 57°39′07″N 3°11′46″W / 57.651853°N 3.19608°W |
1857 | British Museum, London, Marischal Museum, Aberdeen, National Museum of Scotland, Edinburgh | 36 or 37 originally, 7 gold ribbon torcs in BM, 3 in NMS and 1 in MM | |
| Walderslade Hoard | 1000-750 BC | Walderslade, Kent 51°20′06″N 0°31′07″E / 51.33494°N 0.5187°E |
1965 | British Museum, London | 2 gold penannular bracelets | |
| Wanlass Hoard | 1100-750 BC | Wanlass, North Yorkshire 54°18′03″N 1°54′12″W / 54.300885°N 1.9032°W |
1862 | British Museum, London | 4 gold penannular bracelets | |
| Whalley Hoard | 1000-750 BC | Whalley, Lancashire 53°49′28″N 2°24′12″W / 53.82454°N 2.403295°W |
1966 | British Museum, London | 1 gold penannular bracelet, 1 gold lock-ring, 2 axes, 1 knife, 1 sword blade, 1 socketed gouge and 1 lead stud |
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List of Bronze Age hoards in Great Britain Facts for Kids. Kiddle Encyclopedia.