Object: Unlooped Palstave
Period: Bronze Age
Collection: Private Collection,Captain. A.C. Eyton,Eyton Hall, Eyton-on-the-Weald Moors, N. Wellington, Salop.,Among collection made by Thos. Campbell Eyton, F.Z.S. off Eyton (c. 1880),Loaned to Shrewsbury Museum by his heir (1955)
Site: history unknown: no label,presumably: England, shropshire,probably one of the missing bronze celts from preston-upon-the weald moor, s.w.j, crow brook: 5 side, e. of bridge on kinley road,c. 1833
County: Shropshire
Country: England
Grid reference: SJ 675 149
Year of discovery: 1833
Length (mm): 175
Width (mm): 26
Edge (mm): 76
Thickness (mm): 39
Weight (g): 595
Patina: Brown, largely rubbed off
Surface: Smooth and lustrous; evidently much cleaned since discovery. Ridges of juncture on sides have been rubbed down.
Composition: Bronze
Other: Width: edge 76mm; at ridge 26mm; butt 24mm,Thickness: of flange 39mm,Weight: 1lb 5oz = 595.34 gms
Associations: Probably one of the 5 bronze celts found 4-5 ft from the surface by a labourer, Wm. Pickering, when digging a drain about 20 yards SE of the crossing of the Crow Brook below Preston W.M.
Description: Butt originally square, now damaged (?) by use as a hammer. Edge widely splayed, blade irregularly serrated (?) by recent use. Long U-shaped shield on faces - Lateral stops transverse. Hammer-marking in septum.
Publications: Site marked on 6" O.S. Shropshire Sheet XXXVI N.W.,Basic Records of the PReston Hoard: 1869, Miss. C. Eyton, Geology of N. Shropshire, 80,1871, Re. W. Houghton, "The Wealdmoors," Trans. Swan. Valley Nats. F. C., 1865-73, 106-7.,1880, Ordnance Survey, original O.N.B. XXXI, 2, T full-size drawing of similar axe ( destroyed 1940 Blitz),also 1884, E. Jones, Shrops. Arch. Trans. VII, 349,L.F. Chitty, Antiq. Jn VIII (1928), 46-7,Shrops Arch. Trans. LIV (1953), 241-8 figs.,Off Journal in "Notts Oxon Salop." Prehistory pamphlets halves.
Remarks: This palstave fits closely on the (tracing of the ) drawing of an axe from the hoard which was (in 1880) in possession of Int. Hoper of Kinnersley W.M. It may well have been obtained by Miss. C. Eyton later than the publication of her book.