Images

08/04. A Bronze Age palstave found near Shardlow. On display in the Derby Museum & Art Gallery.

stubob Sep 18, 2004

08/04. The 10m long Bronze Age log boat found at Shardlow, dated around 1440-1310BC.
The stones to it’s side are part of a stone causeway (and timber) the boat was found next to, the boat was filled with the same kind of stones before it was deliberately sank. On display in the Derby Museum & Art Gallery.

stubob Sep 18, 2004

Articles

Shardlow

stubob Sep 19, 2004

I guess Shardlow isn’t really in the Peak District proper, unless of course you take the Pennines right to their bitter southern end, and finish at the Heritage Hotel (nee Pennine Hotel) in Derby City centre.
But seen as the news item on the discovery of the boat appears under the Peak District section, this is probably as gooder place as any.

In the Bronze Age Shardlow was marshy wet ground on the edges of the then River Trent. Today it’s a nice enough village on the Trent and Mersey Canal, still close to the Trent.
Sadly the area’s prehistory has been completely ruined by gravel extraction. A Henge complex, cursus and a later Iron Age settlement were replaced by gravel pits, now flooded and a mass of anglers.
Possibly the only ‘good-ish’ thing to come out of the pits apart from a ‘Windsor 3inch pea driveway gravel’ is the discovery of the Bronze Age log boat and the stone and timber causeway/walkway it was discovered next to.
The causeway was being constructed from sandstone rocks found 3 miles up river from Shardlow. It’s thought the boat was deliberately sunk with a full cargo of sandstone. Many bronze votive offerings have been recovered from the area of the causeway.