Bronze Age Shropshire (2,000 – 800 BC)

The Bronze Age was the time in the development of human culture when the use of Bronze became more widespread. The term is of strictly local value as the use of bronze came into use at different times in different parts of the world. The British Bronze Age is usually classed as the period between 2,000 – 800 BC. . It is the middle stage of the ‘3-age system’, which incorporates the Stone, Bronze and Iron Ages. The distinctions refer to the primary material that was used at the time. In reality the change from one period to the next would have been gradual but archaeologists give them a more defined timeframe for convenience.

Early Bronze Age settlements are very rare in Britain. It is likely that the dependence on arable agriculture of the Bronze Age people may not have supported the creation of permanent settlements but produced a more self-sufficient and mobile society, that would have travelled around to exploit resources to the best advantage.

It has been suggested that ceremonial memorials such as round barrows (large mounds of earth) and stone monuments formed part of this transient lifestyle. Domestic articles found at these sites may represent temporary habitation at certain times of year or the ceremonial depositing of artefacts for religious or spiritual purposes.

By 2,000 BC there were settled communities in most parts of Britain, although no early Bronze Age settlements have been recorded in Shropshire. Some 25 burial mounds survive on the Long Mynd and Bronze Age burials have been found on the gravel terrace to the south of Shrewsbury. A hearth and associated fragments of Beaker pottery and a flint scatter at Rock Green, Ludlow are most likely to represent a temporary settlement rather than permanent habitation.

Burial practices changed during the Bronze Age. The Neolithic practice of burying numerous dead in a chambered cairn or long barrow developed into the burial of individuals in smaller barrows. Cremation was also common in this period. On the Long Mynd in south west Shropshire there is an Early Bronze Age Barrow, which is unique to the county and rare to find in the rest of the country. It was built as a funerary monument and would have contained a burial, most likely a cremation, and perhaps a range of grave goods, such as pottery, tools and personal ornaments.

On Ludlow Golf Course there is a large long barrow, measuring some 35 metres in diameter and 3 metres high, which was built as a funerary monument and once contained one or more burials. Finds from this excavation included a cinerary urn that was shattered during the digging and a cremated burial. The barrow probably dates to the Bronze Age.

Nearby is another barrow which is known as Robin Hood’s Butt or Butt Tump. This is also a funerary monument for one or more burials and even today it measures 28 metres in diameter and 4.3 metres high.

There is evidence for tree clearance in the Late Neolithic/Early Bronze Age in Shropshire and for some agricultural cultivation of crops. However, the only clear indication of Bronze Age activity are the ceremonial monuments and limited finds of bronze implements.

Communication in Bronze Age Shropshire was predominantly along ridgeways and the most famous of these is the Clun-Clee ridgeway that ran across the south of the county in an east-west direction. Numerous pieces of flint have been found in this area.

Along the top of the Long Mynd is a ridgeway known as the Port Way, which can still be used today by walkers, cyclists and horse riders but would have originally been used by Bronze Age traders and travellers. Flint tools have been found in this area but they must have been brought in from elsewhere as there is no flint content in the stone of the Long Mynd region.

Other Bronze Age trackways have been identified along Stapeley Hill (Yr Hen Ffordd – The Old Road) and in the north of the county there is a trackway, known as the Ffordd Saeson, which starts at Oswestry and connects Anglesey with the Severn Valley. It was likely that this was used by Bronze Age Irish axe-traders, whose implements have been found in Shropshire. (Trevor Rowley, pg 31)

A Bronze Age log boat discovered at Chetwynd Park, to the north west of Newport, in 1981 suggests that the Bronze Age communties of Shropshire were also making use of rivers for communication and transport. The boat was found during work on the River Meese and the wood was fairly well preserved. A sample was sent off for radiocarbon dating which suggested that the wood for the boat had been cut between 1890 – 1220 BC, placing it firmly in the Bronze Age.

The boat had been built from half an oak log but no tool marks remained to give a clue as to the method of construction. The fragment was 3 metres in length and consisted of one end, the bottom and parts of the sides. As the boat was incomplete its original height and length could not be determined.

Stone monuments are also a feature of Bronze Age Britain. It is not known what significance standing stones had for the community that created them but they may have been used for religious, spiritual or landmark features. Stapeley Hill is home to a Bronze Age stone circle known as Mitchell’s Fold. Today there are 15 stones in situ but there may have been as many as double this number. Legend has it that this area was the home of a giant cow which never failed to produce milk until a witch milked her dry. The witch was turned to stone and a stone circle was created to imprison her.

There is another stone circle nearby, known as the Hoarstones and a further stone circle known as the Whetstones existed in the area up until the 19th century when the last stone was removed and bones and charcoal were found underneath.

All the stones for these circles came from Stapeley Hill.

During the Bronze Age metal began to overtake stone as the material used for making tools, weapons and other implements.

The first use of metal was as pure copper. It was then realised that by adding tin to copper you created bronze, which was a better quality metal as it was less brittle and easier to work with. Bronze soon became the most popular metal and has since given the period its name.

Bronze smelting was not an easy process to perfect. Substantial quantities of copper and tin would need to be gathered either by direct mining or exchanged through trade.

The copper was smelted to extract any impurities and produce pure copper and then it was mixed with tin. It was important to get the proportions of the mix right as too much tin and the bronze produced would be too soft and too little and it would become brittle.

To make objects out of the bronze a kiln (oven for burning at high temperatures) would be built and enough fuel gathered to create a temperature in excess of 1084 degrees Celsius. The molten bronze would then be poured into wooden moulds and allowed to cool. The final product was then highly polished to produce a bright sheen.
(Image: Bronze Age Axe Mould)

In Shropshire there are examples of Bronze palstave axes (where the axe head was designed to fit into a split in a wooden handle) around Prees, Upton Cresset, Haughmond and Wem. Most of these axe heads date from the Middle Bronze Age, 2,000 – 1,200 BC.