RARE ANTIQUES FOUND.

Manawatu Standard, Volume IV, Issue 221, 19 August 1931, Page 3

RARE ANTIQUES FOUND.

AFTER HISTORY LESSON. • A lesson given by the schoolmaster, Mr W. J. Skilton, of Bentley, Hants, on ancient history to his pupils has brought to light a discovery of considerable archaeological importance. Mr Skilton invited the children to bring any of their finds in the fields and hedgerows to him, and in an accumulation of stuff, most of it rubbish, one little girl brought a piece of pottery. Mr Skilton showed it to Major A. G. Wade, who lives in the village, is a Fellow of the Society of Antiquarians and an authority on old pottery. He recognised it as mediaeval 15th cejitury pottery, and not since the discovery of the Lincoln collection, now in the British Museum, has such a find been recorded.

Major Wade and Mr Skilton were taken to the site where the girl picked up tho piece, and they have already recovered 300 potsherds, although excavation work proper has not yet begun. The site is a mass of black charcoal, pointing to tho existence of a kiln nearby, and it is on the “Pilgrims’ Way” from Alton to Farnham. The potsherds include half a brazing dish with a hollow handle incised with dots, tho base edge thumbed down to form a series of supports which counteract the convex rotundity of the base—features all characteristic of the fifteenth century. Major Wade is submitting the finds to the British Museum.