NHER 10727 (Find Spot record) - Unprovenanced Palaeolithic flint handaxes (?Gillingham, poorly located)

REPORTED DISCOVERIES

Around 1921-1922. Stray Find.
According to (S1), "2 Acheulian handaxes" were found at an unknown location in Gillingham during the early 1920s. No other details are given.
These finds are also noted on (S2) and in (S3), (S4), (S5) and (S6), although no additional information is given. It is suggested in (S6) that these finds may actually have come from in or near the Atlas Aggregates pits in the adjacent parish of Aldeby (see NHER 10723 and 10740). As discussed below it is now considered possibly that these objects are actually held by the Cambridge University Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology.
Amended by P. Watkins (HES), 26 February 2014.

FINDS IN MUSEUM COLLECTIONS

According to a note on (S2) gazetteer cards completed during the production of (S3) record two objects from Gillingham in the Cambridge University Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology (1 handaxe and 1 flake). It appears that the objects themselves were not seen and they are not listed in (S3).
These objects are almost certainly two flints described in the museum's accession records as 1 "coup de poing" and 1 flake (1925.23). These are recorded as having been found at Gillingham in Norfolk and were acquired from a Dr W. M. Tapp.

No other sources make any mention of these objects and it is possible that they are actually the two C. Hartley finds discussed above. This suggestion is supported by the fact that Hartley is also reported to have recovered another handaxe in neighbouring Aldeby and that the only potentially corresponding find in a museum collection is a handaxe in the same CUMAA collection, also acquired from a Dr W. M. Tapp in 1925.
P. Watkins (HES), 10 January 2016.