Retired nurse finds Bronze Age axe head in Northumberland

A retired Hartlepool nurse found an axe head dating back 3,500 years to the Bronze Age while out in Northumberland earlier this month.

Transcript

00:00I'm in the Hartlepool home of Philip Pugh, and I believe you're a detectorist, is that correct, or have I got that wrong?

00:06I'm a metal detectorist.

00:08While you were out, you found an axe.

00:11I did.

00:12Tell me about it.

00:13Well, it was last Sunday, a week on Sunday, and I was out with the club East Dome Detectors,

00:20and it's an organised event every weekend in different places.

00:24They get permission from the local farms or farms in the region.

00:28And we go as a group and look for history.

00:32I was very fortunate that day to come across a very old Bronze Age axe head,

00:39which is around 3,500 years old.

00:42No.

00:43Yeah, absolutely. It was a surprise to me.

00:46I was absolutely amazed and dumbfounded by what I found, what I recovered.

00:52What did you think?

00:54What did I think? I was absolutely mind-blown.

00:58I was the first person to probably touch this in 3,500 years old.

01:03That is staggering.

01:05It's unbelievable.

01:06How do you feel about that?

01:07I was excited. I looked around. Most people had gone from the field.

01:12In fact, everybody had gone from the field at the time. It was the end of the day.

01:16I'd walked literally another six metres and thought,

01:19I'll do that and then turn around, go back to the van and go home.

01:24I found a number of finds that day, which were good.

01:26Finding anything is really good.

01:28But literally finding that on the last find of the day was just absolutely unbelievable.

01:36What's going to happen to it?

01:38Well, legally, we have to report all finds that are classed as treasure or of historical value.

01:45You have to report those to the finds liaison officer.

01:48They're all in each region.

01:52You've got to do that within 14 days.

01:55I've reported that and I'm waiting for the finds liaison officer to get back to me.

01:59It'll probably then go to a museum to be assessed and reported on.

02:04There'll be two outcomes.

02:06Either one, the museums will either keep it or either look towards purchasing it.

02:13Or they'll return it with a historical report attached.

02:17Either way, it gets reported on.

02:19Personally, I'd rather go to a museum and be shown so everybody can see it.

02:23For me, it's about the history and recovering just these beautiful pieces of workmanship.

02:30Absolutely.