NHER 6578 (Find Spot record) - Unprovenanced ?Mesolithic and Neolithic flint implements, near site of St Helen's Church (East Beckham, poorly located)

Late 19th century/early 20th century. Stray Find.
The Norwich Castle Museum's Cox-Barclay Collection (NWHCM : 1935.57) includes several flint implements that were found in East Beckham "near old church ruins". These objects were probably found in the vicinity of the ruins of St Helen's Church (NHER 6631; TG 155 398) and are listed by (S1) as follows:
(i) Chipped axe. Dimensions 4 1/2 inches [11.5cm] by 1 1/2 inches [3.8cm]. Later identified as potentially Mesolithic by R. Jacobi.
(ii) Grey chipped flint axe. Dimensions 5 1/2 inches [14cm] by 1 1/2 inches [3.8cm]. Found 1 June 1886.
(iii) Thin chipped grey flint axe possibly reworked from polished one. Dimensions 4 3/4 inches [12cm] by 1 3/4 inches [4.5cm]. Found 17 April 1913.
It is noted by (S1) that these objects were held by F. H. Barclay in 1934 but had previously been in the possession of J. Cox (the headmaster of Gresham School).

These finds are probably the reason that East Beckham was listed in (S2) as one of the locations that had produced Neolithic implements of "Sandy Site type" prior to 1907 (J. Cox of Gresham being recorded as the finder). These may also be some of the objects that Cox had exhibited at meetings of the Prehistoric Society of East Anglia (S3) (S4).
Amended by P. Watkins (HES), 8 October 2014.