Object: Palstave
Period: Bronze Age
Collection: Private Collection,R. Abel Smith, Esq.,Netherwood Manor,Tenbury Wells, Worcs.,Given to him by an ironmonger and antique dealer in Tenbury, Worcs., who said he bought them from Mr. Childe-Freeman (c 1943) and he understood they came from Netherwood, as stated.
Site: stated to have been found in England, herefordshire,thornpury,netherwood (old house),in digging foundations for a pigsty,c. 1921
Parish: Thornpury
County: Herefordshire
Country: England
Year of discovery: 1921
Length (mm): 120
Width (mm): 25
Edge (mm): 46
Thickness (mm): 29
Weight (g): 255
Patina: Thin dull brown patina; bright metal shows through on edges.
Surface: Fairly good.
Composition: Bronze.
Other: Width: edge 46mm; butt 25mm; 29mm at indent of flanges; at ridge 25mm,Thickness: flanges 29mm; 31mm,Weight: 9 oz - 255.146 gms
Associations: Said to have been found "with a lot more", including a hammer-flanged axe, a cast-flanged axe (with type) and a small ribbed (Irish) spearhead, in same collection.
Description: Butt thick square, with angles beaten down. Face A: High flanges slightly bent above well-developed stop-ridge and unfolding below it to form U-shaped shield. Face B: Flanges form wings over ridge; hollow in face below it. Cast in double mould. Edge well preserved.
Publications: L.F. Chitty, Trans. Woolhope D.F.C, XXXII, ii (1947), xlv-xlix, Photo.
Remarks: (?) Possible escapes from the Museum Collection of St. Michael's Choir School. Tebury which was thrown away in 1937; it included a bronze halberd of Irish type [...] F. Chitten - 18th March 1947