Birtley, bronze axe

In 1931 a bronze wing-flanged axe was found, apparently with a perforated stone hammer (HER no. 655), in Blythe & Co.'s brickyard at Birtley. It was recovered from "a mass of clay involved in a slight landslip, in a thin patch of gravel overlying deep deposits of late glacial lake muds. The gravel is part of an old stream delta formed in the lake, a small patch of dry ground in a swamp". The axe is 133 mm long, 52 mm wide, and has a widely splayed cutting edge and poorly developed stop ridges. It has a triangular tapering groove on each side. Raistrick's analysis: 82.73% copper, 17.2% tin, with traces of iron and nickel. It was exhibited twice to the Society of Antiquaries, but its present whereabouts are unknown.