NHER 6021 (Find Spot) - Unprovenanced Mesolithic and Neolithic finds, West Harling (Harling, poorly located)

Objects known to have been recovered in the West Harling area of what is now Harling parish, but with little additional information regarding provenance.

FINDS IN THE NORWICH CASTLE MUSEUM.

The NCM's W. G. Clarke Collection includes a Mesolithic flint blade core from West Harling (NWHCM : 1926.32). This core is described in (S1). It is possible that it was found on West Harling heath, where Clarke is known to have recovered other worked flints (his Site 7, see NHER 6101).

FINDS IN OTHER MUSEUMS

30 March 1893. Stray Find.
Found on stone heap at West Harling.
1 Neolithic waisted chipped axe. About 5 inches long [12.5cm]. Purchased by the Pitt Rivers Museum in 1912 (1912.66.6). Information from (S2). The museum's records noted that this object is marked "West Harling 30.3.93".
It is recorded in (S3) that this object was found by a "…labouring man at West Harling, who noticed a golden-coloured stone on a heap which had been collected from a field. He removed it, and it was seen to be a double-headed axe of yellow flint, magnificently chipped and so thin as to be almost transparent…". According to (S4) an anonymous noted dated 1897 in (S5) describes this object as "the finest double headed axe I ever saw" and records that it had been sent to a "South Coast collector" - from whom it was presumably acquired by the Pitt Rivers. This object is also noted in (S6).

Amended by P. Watkins (HES), 9 September 2014.