Golden Treasure Trove
horse, deer, sheep or goat, ox, pig, badger, dog, wolf, fox, man. Molluscs (Linn.) : Ostrea edulis, Mytilus edulis, Cardium echinatum, Mactra sp. Pholas crispata, Buccinum undatum, Purpura lapillus, Littorina littorea, Patella vulgata (Da C.), and Natica catena. The bones appear to have been, sometimes, cut and notched by human hands and some are worked into tools.
The author knows of few instances of the discovery of implements of the Bronze Age near Hastings. One discovery of bronze axes occurred many years ago in forming the Sedlescombe Road, on the north side of Battle : this find is noticed in Thomas Ross's Handbook to Hastings, p. 57.[1] Another was in a fall of the cliff behind the houses at West Marina, St. Leonards-on-Sea, which took place about the year 1869. Three whole axe-heads and a portion of a fourth were found, together with a piece of bronze, technically called a "runner," left over from the mould in casting. Hence it is probable that these implements formed portion of a " founder's hoard." They are of an ordinary type, with two lateral grooves for hafting ; and are now on exhibition at the Hastings Museum in the author's loan-collection. At what time iron-ore was first worked in Sussex for smelting, is a question which we cannot answer at present for want of evidence ; but it is almost certain that the passage in Caesar's Commentaries on the Gallic War (De Bella Gallico, B. V. chap, xii.), which states that " iron is found in the maritime districts," related to the iron found near the Sussex shores.[2] If so, this would go to prove that the art of smelting iron was practised in Sussex before the first Roman invasion, although earlier remains have not yet been positively identified in the cinderheaps which abound in the vicinity of Hastings. Of the former presence of a Celtic population, considerable evidence exists both in local nomenclature and in the discovery of Celtic remains. The magnificent gold hoard discovered in 1863 at Mountfield,[3]which unfortunately was disposed of surreptitiously and melted
- ↑ He mentions that they were thought to be of Norman manufacture, but this is a most improbable supposition. See also Sir J. Evans' Ancient Bronze Instruments as to a bronze sword and trumpet found at Battle, Sussex.
- ↑ Caesar also states that the interior of the Island is inhabited by the traditional aborigines, and the maritime portion by Belgic settlers, who mostly gave the name of the state to which they originally belonged to their settlement in Britain. He says that the number of the people in Britain was countless, and their buildings exceedingly numerous. For money they used either brass or iron rings of a certain weight.
- ↑ The discovery here mentioned was made in the Barnfield, Taylor's Farm, Mountfield parish, Sussex, on January I2th, 1863, by a ploughman named William Butcher. In his depositions before the Coroner he said : " I ploughed up a long piece of metal : my share catched it : I judge it was 17 or 18 inches deep, and deeper than the ground had been ploughed before. Something stopped the plough : it was a long piece of metal like brass : a trumpet on each end, twisted in three grooves, looked as if made of three flat pieces put together, and was completely doubled up. In the furrow about 30 feet from the hedge I found more, some rings, and other pieces - the rings as if cut asunder." He subsequently found two more pieces by digging with a spade. Some of the rings were larger than others, and were not closed ; and one piece looked like part of a breastplate. The hole was 14½ inches deep, square, and with blackened sides, as if it had once enclosed a wooden box which had rotted away. The pieces were subsequently sold as old brass to a Hastings cabdriver named Stephen Willett, who had been a gold-digger in California, and he subsequently, on January 23rd, sold them to Messrs. Brown & Wingrove, gold-refiners, Cheapside. The relics were by them described in their evidence as " small rings, and two lumps which had been melted down, about twenty rings altogether, and about eleven pieces such as were occasionally received from Barbary." The gold, after being assayed, sold for £529 13s. 7d. (it had originally been purchased for 5.s. 6d.) and weighed about 11 lbs. A piece had been sold to a Hastings jeweller, Mr. John Murray, Castle Street, for £18. The weight of the whole, including the pieces subsequently found, was estimated at 12 or 13 lbs., and its value at £650. These gold objects appear to have resembled some ancient gold torques and other ornaments in the British Museum. They were undoubtedly of Celtic origin, and the twisted object " a yard long, with a trumpet at each end," was probably a torque of the usual type. The other ornaments were probably penannular rings. During the examination of the witnesses before the Coroner of the Rape of Hastings, several who had seen the gold agreed in stating that portions of it resembled the ornament round the neck of a Druid, depicted in page 9 in Mr. Charles Knight's Old England, published in 1845, and that the rings corresponded with a group of British ring-money shown in page 21 of the same work. The two men who had received the gold were prosecuted at the summer assizes at Lewes, July 22nd, 1863, before Baron Bramwell. An account of the case, with the indictment and inquisition which went to the Court of Appeal on a technical point, is given in Law Journal, 1864, C.L.M.C. 22 (Reg. v. Thomas and Willett). It was held in this case that treasure-trove must be either gold or silver. At the winter assizes, judgment was passed on Thomas and Willett. They were fined £265 each, with the alternative of imprisonment until the fine was paid. See also The Hastings and St. Leonards News, April 3, May 18,15, and July 24, 1863. In vol. ii. (new series) Proc. Soc. Antiq., p. 247, are woodcuts of three fragments, the only specimens preserved of the gold. Two of these were presented by the Treasury to the British Museum, and the third to the Lord of the Manor. Of these three pieces, one seems to have belonged to a penannular ring, and the two others to an armlet of fluted work, with lines of punctured dots in the hollows, the punctured work resembling a gold corselet found at Mold, in Flintshire. Hundreds of persons visited the field at Mountfield : the ground was thoroughly dug up and searched, with the result that some of the smaller fragments above mentioned were discovered.
