Fig. 85.—Carlton Rode. ½
The form of palstave, so common in France and Germany, without stop-ridge, and with the side wings hammered over so as to form a kind of semi-cylindrical socket on either side of the blade, is rare in England. A specimen from the great find of Carlton Rode,[335] Norfolk, is shown in Fig. 85. There is usually at the top of the blade a sort of dovetailed notch, which may possibly have been made of service in hafting the tool. It originates, however, in there having been two runners by which the metal was conducted into the mould, which when broken off left two projections at the top of the blade. These being hammered so as to round the external angles and flatten the ends have come over towards each other, and made what was a notch with parallel sides into one which is dovetailed.
In this hoard were found numerous socketed celts, gouges, chisels, hammers, pieces of metal, &c. It seems to have been the stock in trade of a bronze-founder. Some other specimens from the same hoard will subsequently be described.
Another palstave of the same character was found, with many socketed celts, fragments of swords and daggers, and rough metal, at Cumberlow,[336] near Baldock, Herts.
Three others were found in 1806, with two socketed celts, a fragment of a sword, three lumps of raw copper, and four gold armlets, on the beach near Eastbourne,[337] immediately under Beachy Head. They passed with the Payne Knight collection into the British Museum.
That found “in an old wall, in Purbeck,”[338] with the socket “double or divided by a partition,” as described by Mr. Hutchins in a letter to Bishop Lyttelton in 1768, must probably have been of this kind.
A good specimen of the same character but bent (5⅜ inches), as well as part of another, was found at Wickham Park, Croydon, together with several socketed celts. They are now in the British Museum.
The upper part of a palstave of this character was found with socketed celts, gouges, &c., in the Hundred of Hoo,[339] Kent. It has been thought that this was cast hollow to receive a central prong, but the cavity is probably due to defective casting. A broken instrument of this kind was found with socketed celts and metal on Kenidjack Cliff,[340] Cornwall.
Palstaves of this type, both with and without loops, are much more abundant on the Continent than in Britain. Numerous examples have been found in France, in Rhenish Prussia, and in the Lake habitations of Savoy and Switzerland.