The list of Bronze Age hoards in Britain comprises significant archaeological hoards of jewellery, precious and scrap metal objects and other valuable items discovered in Great Britain (England, Scotland and Wales) that are associated with the British Bronze Age, approximately 2700 BC to 8th century BC. It includes both hoards that were buried with the intention of retrieval at a later date (personal hoards, founder's hoards, merchant's hoards, and hoards of loot), and also hoards of votive offerings which were not intended to be recovered at a later date, but excludes grave goods and single items found in isolation.
| Hoard | Image | Date | Place of discovery | Year of discovery | Current Location | Contents | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Adabrock Hoard | 1000–800BC | Adabroc,Isle of Lewis | 1910 | National Museum of Scotland, Edinburgh | 2 bronze socketed axeheads, 1 spearhead, 1 gouge, 1 hammer, 3 razors, fragments of decorated bronze vessel, two whetstones and beads of glass, amber and gold.[1] | |||
| Arreton Down Hoard | Isle of Wight | 1735 | British Museum, London | 7 bronze spear-heads, 4 axes, 1 dagger, 1 halberd[2] | ||||
| Auchnacree Hoard | Angus | 1921 | Museum of Scotland, Edinburgh | 2 bronze knives 3 bronze axeheads 1 bronze armlet[3] | ||||
| Beachy Head Hoard | East Sussex | 1824 | British Museum, London | 4 gold penannular bracelets[4] | ||||
| Beaumaris Hoard | Anglesey | 1849 | British Museum, London | 2 gold penannular bracelets[5] | ||||
| Bexley Hoard | London | 1906 | British Museum, London | 17 gold penannular bracelets (one broken in half)[6] | ||||
| Boughton Malherbe Hoard | Kent | 2011 | Maidstone Museum & Art Gallery | 352 bronze objects of types commonly found in northern France, comprising 75 bronze weapon fragments, 136 bronze tools and tool fragments, 42 bronze ornaments, and about 71 bronze ingots, moulds and miscellaneous objects.[7] [8] | ||||
| Burnham-on-Crouch Hoard | Essex | 2010 | Colchester and Ipswich Museums | pottery vessel filled with bronze axes and other metalwork[9] | ||||
| Burton Hoard | Clwyd | 2004 | National Museum Cardiff | 2 bronze palstaves 1 bronze chisel 1 gold torc 1 gold twisted-wire bracelet 1 gold necklace pendant 4 gold beads 3 gold rings 1 pottery vessel[10] | ||||
| Chrishall Hoard | Essex | c. 1853 | British Museum, London | 5 bronze axes, 3 swords, 1 ingot, 1 spear-head[11] | ||||
| Collette Hoard | Northumberland | 2005 | Great North Museum, Newcastle upon Tyne | 6 socketed axes, 6 gold lock rings, and various bracelets, rings and pins[12] | ||||
| Corbridge Hoard | Northumberland | 1835 | Blackgate Museum Bailiffgate Museum | fragments of two spearheads pieces of dagger blades a flanged axe | ||||
| Crundale Hoard | Kent | 2003 | Museum of Canterbury | 188 fragments (including axe, chisel, palstave, hammer, gouge, knife, sickle, sword, bracelet, ring, and ingots) | ||||
| Driffield Hoard I | East Riding of Yorkshire | --> | 2016 | 14 bronze socketed axes and 13 bronze ingot fragments.[13] | ||||
| Driffield Hoard II | East Riding of Yorkshire | --> | 2016 | 36 complete and 23 broken or fragmented socketed bronze axes, two nearly complete bun-shaped bronze ingots, and 91 bronze ingot fragments.[14] | ||||
| Duddingston Loch Hoard | Edinburgh | 1778 | Museum of Scotland, Edinburgh | 44 bronze items consisting of the ring of a large cauldron and fragments of spearheads, swords and dagger blades; point of a bronze spearhead; contorted bronze sword, broken in two, with three rivet holes and a slot in the hilt plate; contorted point of a bronze sword; blade of a bronze sword broken off under the hilt and bent back at the point.[15] [16] | ||||
| Eggleston Hoard | County Durham | 2019 | Several bronze spearheads and knives, as well as some amber and jet beads[17] | |||||
| Fittleworth Hoard | West Sussex | 1995 | British Museum, London | 2 gold penannular bracelets, 35 gold bars, 2 fragments of a torc, 2 rings[18] | ||||
| Gaerwen Hoard | Anglesey | 1852 | British Museum, London | 2 gold lock rings, 2 gold penannular bracelets[19] | ||||
| Havering hoard | (undisclosed site) | 2018 | Unknown (exhibited at Museum of London Docklands from 3 April to 25 October 2020 and subsequently at Havering Museum) | Swords, socketed axe heads, spear heads, knives, daggers, woodwork tools, bracelets, ingots, and other items, weighing more than 45 kg in total | ||||
| Heathery Burn Cave Hoard | County Durham | 1866 | British Museum, London, Ashmolean Museum, Oxford, Yorkshire Museum, York | 1 gold penannular bracelet, 1 gold lock-ring, 36 bronze awls, 20 pins, 14 axes, 11 rings, 11 cheek-pieces, 10 bracelets, 10 spear-heads, 8 pendants, 7 vessels, 6 wheels, 6 spatulas, 2 toggles, 2 knives, 2 swords, 4 scoops or chisels, 4 phaleras, casting moulds, fittings, a bowl and a bucket plus other miscellaneous items[20] | ||||
| Heights of Brae Hoard | Dingwall, Highland | 1967 and 1979 | Museum of Scotland, Edinburgh | 3 gold cup-ended ornaments, 5 gold penannular armlets, and 1 corrugated gold band (a cup-ended ornament, a pennanular armlet and two additional items that are now lost were found during ploughing in 1967; the remaining seven items were found during archaeological investigation in 1979).[21] | ||||
| Hollingbourne Hoard | Kent | 2003 | Maidstone Museum & Art Gallery | 12 bronze axes and axe fragments 2 bronze sword hilt fragments 6 bronze sword blade fragments 2 bronze spearhead fragments 14 bronze ingots | ||||
| Hollingbury Hoard | East Sussex | 1825 | British Museum, London | 4 bronze armlets, 3 rings, 1 palstave, 1 torc[22] | ||||
| Horsehope Craig Hoard | Peeblesshire 55.5772°N -3.2612°W | 1865 | Tweeddale Museum and Gallery, Peebles and National Museum of Scotland | 15 bronze rings, 2 socketed axes, 1 rapier, 28 objects in all, thought to be elements of horse harness and cart mountings | ||||
| Husband's Bosworth Hoard | Leicestershire | 1801 | unknown | 4 looped and socketed celts 2 socketed celts 3 socketed gouges 2 spearheads 1 flat ferrule[23] | ||||
| Isleham Hoard | Cambridgeshire | 1959 | West Stow Anglo-Saxon Village Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology, University of Cambridge | 6,500 pieces of worked and unworked bronze | ||||
| Lambourn Hoard | Berkshire | 2004 | West Berkshire Museum | 2 gold armlets 3 gold bracelets | ||||
| Langdon Bay Hoard | Kent | 1974 | British Museum, London | 360 items of scrap metal, including bronze axes of a French type[24] | ||||
| Langton Matravers Hoard | Dorset | 2008 | Dorset Museum, Dorchester | 276 complete socketed bronze axes, 107 halves of socketed bronze axes and 117 fragments of socketed bronze axes in three adjacent pits and one pit further away | ||||
| Lewes Hoard | East Sussex | 2011 | 79 objects in a pottery vessel, including 3 bronze palstaves, 5 bronze bracelets, 8 bronze finger rings, 4 bronze tutuli (also known as Monkswood ornaments), 4 gold discs, 1 bronze pin, 19 amber beads and 4 bronze torcs[25] | |||||
| Llanarmon-yn-Iâl Hoard | Denbighshire | 1982 | Amgueddfa Cymru – Museum Wales | 1 socketed bronze axe, 2 gold bracelets, a broken gold link, and a gold ingot[26] | ||||
| Lockington Hoard | Leicestershire | 1994 | British Museum, London | fragments of 2 Beaker style pots 1 copper alloy dagger 2 embossed gold-sheet armlets[27] | ||||
| Manorbier Hoard | Dyfed | 2010 | 19 bronze and copper artefacts, including socketed axes, a gouge, a piece of a sword blade, a circular dish-headed pin, ingots and bronze casting bi-products[28] | |||||
| Marston St. Lawrence Hoard | Northamptonshire | c.1897 | British Museum, London | 4 bronze spear-heads, 2 swords, 2 stone whetstones, 1 bracelet, 1 ferrule[29] | ||||
| Meldreth Hoard | Cambridgeshire | 1880 | British Museum, London | 25 bronze axes, 15 ingots, 5 spear-heads, 4 swords, 2 bucket handles, 1 gouge, 1 razor, 1 finger ring, 1 chisel[30] | ||||
| Mickleham Hoard | Surrey | 2003 | 2 socketed axes 1 chape | |||||
| Migdale Hoard | Sutherland | 1900 | Museum of Scotland, Edinburgh | 1 bronze axe head sets of bronze bangles and anklets a set of jet and cannel coal buttons bronze hair ornaments fragments of a bronze headdress[31] | ||||
| Milton Keynes Hoard | Buckinghamshire | 2000 | British Museum, London | 2 gold torcs 3 gold bracelets 1 bronze fragment 1 pottery vessel[32] | ||||
| Moor Sand Hoard | Devon | 1977 | British Museum, London | six bronze swords or sword fragments and two bronze palstaves | ||||
| Morvah Hoard | Cornwall | 1884 | British Museum, London | 6 gold penannular bracelets[33] | ||||
| New Bradwell (or Wolverton) Hoard | Buckinghamshire | 1879 | Buckinghamshire County Museum | 9 bronze socketed axes 3 broken axes 1 palstave 2 spearheads a leaf-shaped sword (broken into 4 pieces) | ||||
| Ockham Hoard | Guildford Museum | six unlooped palstave axes of which four are ribbed examples, and two plain; two Sussex loop bracelets; and two spiral finger rings | url= https://www.surreyarchaeology.org.uk/sites/default/files/SAS441_0.pdf | access-date=3 February 2023 |
|-| Peebles Hoard (unofficial name)|||||(undisclosed site) near Peebles||2020||National Museums Scotland|| bronze horse harness fittings[34] |-| Plymstock Hoard|||| ||
Devon
|| 1869 || British Museum, London|| 12 bronze axes, 3 daggers, 1 spear-head, 1 chisel[35] |-| Rossett Hoard|| || ||
Wrexham
|| 2002|| National Museum Cardiff|| 1 faceted axe
1 tanged knife
4 pieces of gold bracelet stored inside the axe[36] |-| Selborne Hoard|||| ||
Hampshire
|| 1840 || British Museum, London|| 3 bronze armlets, 2 rings, 1 bracelet, 1 spear-head, 1 palstave[37] |-| St Erth hoards|| || ||
Cornwall
|| 2002–2003|| Royal Cornwall Museum|| 2 gold ornament fragments
Bronze/copper hoard 1: 5 sword pieces, 3 socketed axe pieces, 1 socketed gouge piece, 1 knife fragment, 1 plate-like fragment, 16 ingot fragments or amorphous lumps
Bronze/copper hoard 2: 1 winged axe, 1 plate-like spill, 15 ingot fragments|-| St Mellons Hoard|||| ||
Glamorgan
|| 1983|| National Museum Cardiff|| 25 bronze socketed axes and one casting jet[38] |-| Stogursey Hoard (1870)|||| ||
Somerset
|| 1870|| Museum of Somerset|| 20 sword fragments
29 socketed axes
37 socketed axe fragments
2 palstaves
2 gouges
2 knives or daggers
1 chape
20 spearheads
34 other bronze fragments|-| Stonnall Hoard|| || ||
Staffordshire
|| 1824|| Unknown|| 2 swords
1 spearhead and 2 fragments of same
4 ferrules
2 cylinders
3 rings
2 pommels
3 celts
1 lump of copper
1 lump of lead[39] |-| Stretham Hoard|||| ||
Cambridgeshire
|| 1850|| British Museum, London, Hunt Museum, Limerick|| 1 gold torc, 1 gold bracelet, 6 ribbed rings, 1 bronze rapier[40] |-| Tarves Hoard|||| ||
Aberdeenshire
|| 1858|| British Museum, London|| 3 bronze swords, 1 pommel, 1 chape and 2 pins[41] |-| Tisbury Hoard|| || ||
Wiltshire
|| 2011|| || 114 bronze items, including weapons and tools (sword hilts, sword blades, spearheads, axeheads, gouges, chisels, sickles and knives), pieces of jewellery, razors and other miscellaneous items[42] |-| Tisbury Treasure|||| ||
Wiltshire
|| Before 1897|| British Museum, London|| 6 gold penannular bracelets[43] |-| Towednack Hoard|||| ||
Cornwall
|| 1931|| British Museum, London|| 2 twisted gold neckrings
4 gold bracelets
3 lengths of gold rod|-| Urquhart Hoard|||| ||
Moray
|| 1857 || British Museum, London, Marischal Museum, Aberdeen, National Museum of Scotland, Edinburgh|| 36 or 37 originally, 7 gold ribbon torcs in BM, 3 in NMS and 1 in MM[44] [45] [46] |-| Walderslade Hoard|||| ||
Kent
|| 1965|| British Museum, London|| 2 gold penannular bracelets[47] |-| Wanlass Hoard|||| ||
North Yorkshire
|| 1862 || British Museum, London|| 4 gold penannular bracelets[48] |-| Whalley Hoard|||| ||
Lancashire
|| 1966 || British Museum, London|| 1 gold penannular bracelet, 1 gold lock-ring, 2 axes, 1 knife, 1 sword blade, 1 socketed gouge and 1 lead stud[49] |-|}