Boy finds Bronze Age spearhead during day out

A Bronze Age artefact found by an eight-year-old boy during a day out in the Lake District is to go on display.

George was adventuring near Waterhead beside Windermere with his mum Kate, when he found a spearhead in November 2024.

"I was digging and having fun and I saw what looked like a ring, so I pulled it out and it just kept on going," he said.

Lake District National Park Authority historic environment assistant, Marnie Calvert, said the spearhead had likely been given as a votive offering - when an object is left in a sacred place for religious reasons. It will be on show at Armitt Museum in Ambleside throughout 2027.

"I didn't know it was a spearhead, so when I found out it was very fun," George said.

At first it was believed the object was Roman.

However, Theodore Muscillo, finds liaison officer for the Portable Antiquities Scheme, said the basal loops at the bottom of the spearhead strongly indicated Bronze Age origins.

They would have been used to attach the spearhead to a wooden shaft to make a spear and used to hunt animals like deer, wild boar and even wolves.

George, who was eight at the time of the discovery, took the spearhead into safekeeping, protecting it from damage by wrapping it in bubble wrap and keeping it in a bag made by his grandma.

The park authority has added the item to the Historic Environment Record to assist in future research into the prehistoric Lake District.

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