‘Couldn’t believe it’: Retired Hartlepool nurse finds two Bronze Age axe heads just weeks apart

Philip Pugh, 60, found a second Bronze Age Palstave axe head just five weeks after finding his first one in November in a field west of Hexham, in Northumberland.

Phil said: “I revisited the same dig area five weeks later with East Durham Detectors Group on their arranged Christmas Dig and unbelievably found another completely undamaged Bronze Age Palstave axe head 400 meters from the location I recovered the first Palstave axe head.”

He continued: "I really couldn’t believe it and never thought I would find another in my lifetime.

"Finding one is on every detectorist's bucket list but to find two in such a beautiful and well-preserved condition is just an amazing experience.”

Both axe heads have been given to the Great North Museum, in Newcastle, along with a number of other Bronze Age items found by other detectorists.

Find Liaison Officer for the Portable Antiquities Scheme, Andrew Agate, believes the items are part of a Bronze Age Hoard, which is a collection of valuable objects, usually buried in the ground, that have been hidden or stored away for safekeeping.

Phil said: “All artefacts have been handed in for reporting to Andrew Agate at the Hancock Museum and as far as I am aware, the next steps are lengthy as the museum believes it may be related to a Bronze Age Hoard so they are putting a case together to the coroner to identify them as a hoard.

"If the case is accepted, then it will then go through various committees for precise identification and valuation with the British Museum prior to any museum been offered the opportunity to acquire the artefacts.

"This process is lengthy and may take up to one to one and a half years.

“I personally, as do others, do not believe the artefacts are a Hoard due to the differences in age and style of the axe heads, and also the specific finds locations are so far apart.

"I believe they are more likely to be either lost or individually-placed or hidden artefacts from a thriving Bronze Age community over time.

"But we shall see what the experts decide.”