NHER 13317 (Find Spot record) - Unprovenanced Mesolithic flint tranchet axehead and Neolithic flint implements, Beachamwell Glebe (Beachamwell, poorly located)

Various prehistoric worked flints recorded as being found in the area known as Beachwell Glebe, but with no further information regarding provenance. It is has been said that a cross (NHER 4549) marked one boundary of the glebe land in Beachamwell, although according to (S1) it is in fact a large circle of stones marked on the 6" OS map that are the glebe boundary.

FIND IN THE NORWICH CASTLE MUSEUM

This museum hold four Neolithic implements that are recorded as being from Beachamwell Glebe:
1 Neolithic flint implement. Ex. E. M. Beloe (NWHCM : 1908.22.58 : A).
3 "Neolithic worked flint implement". Ex Rev. J. F. Williams (NWHCM : 1927.32 : A).

According to (S2) the Norwich Castle Museum also holds a Mesolithic flint tranchet axehead from Beachamwell Glebe that had previously been in the possession of Rev. R. C. Nightingale. This object was identified by R. Jacobi and is described in his records (S3). The museum accession number listed (NWHCM : 1915.73) indicates that the axe is part of a mixed collection of objects from Beachamwell that was donated by Nightingale. Two Neolithic/Bronze axes in this collection are recorded on (S4) (as NHER 4526), but the recorded dimensions suggest that neither is the Mesolithic axe seem by Jacobi.

OTHER FINDS

1911-1914. Stray Find.
Flint flake of probable Neolithic date found at Beachamwell Glebe. Part of a collection of 28 flint artefacts and 7 fossils inherited by an individual from his father and known to have been in the family for at least 30 years when submitted for recording in 2010. The collection is loose in a cardboard box lined by a sheet from the Eastern Daily Press of August 12th 1948. There is also an accompanying yellowed sheet of paper with the following heading:

“FLINT IMPLEMENTS collected by . . . late of Stoke Ferry, Beechamwell and Necton, about 1911-1914, mostly Neolithic, i.e. New Stone Age, 3000-1800 B.C.”

See NHER 55437 for further information on this collection, most of which is unprovenanced.

P. Watkins (HES), 3 June 2013 and 5 August 2014.