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Summary

Hoard of iron currency bars discovered in the wood in 1870 near Holne Chase Camp.

Location

Protected Status: none recorded

Other References/Statuses

• National Monuments Record: SX77SW15
• National Record of the Historic Environment: 445285
• Old DCC SMR Ref: SX77SW/56
• Ordnance Survey Archaeology Division: SX77SW15

Monument Type(s) and Dates

• FINDSPOT (Iron Age - 700 BC (Between) to 42 AD (Between))

Full description

National Trust, 07/1984, Holne Woods, Archaeological Survey, 5 (Report - Survey). SDV356628.

Amery, P. F. S., 1906, Supposed currency bars found near Holne Chase Camp, 370-372 (Article in Serial). SDV140106.

About a dozen bars, twenty-four inches long and two inches broad tapering to a flat point at one end, and bent round at the other, were discovered in 1870 when a gamekeeper was digging out a rabbit from rocks between Holne Chase Camp and the River Dart on the west side. The bars were packed together on a flat stone with another laid on the top, the whole embedded in peat earth among the roots of an oak coppice. Most of the bars were broken by the finder but two or three survived for a while and some fragments were secured by P. F. S. Amery.

Victoria County History, 1906, The Victoria History of the County of Devon, 368-370 (Article in Serial). SDV238214.

Amery, J. S., 1924, (Presidential Address) The Ashburton of past days: its manners, customs and inhabitants, 45 (Article in Serial). SDV315287.

J. S. Amery, brother of the above, records that "the most perfect specimens are now in the Museum of Practical Geology, Jermyn Street, London."

Ralegh Radford, C. A., 1929, Our Prehistoric Camps, 6 (Article in Serial). SDV306038.

Hoard of iron currency bars discovered in the wood by Holnechase Camp. Belonging to the same culture as the pottery from Cranbrook Castle i.e.: La Tene.

Pilkington-Rogers, C. W, 1932, The Date of the Dartmoor Antiquities, 384, 385, 386 fig (Article in Serial). SDV149513.

The currency bars belonged to the same culture as did the CranbrookCastle pottery finds.

Brailsford, J. W., 1938, Bronze Age Stone Monuments of Dartmoor, 456-7 (Article in Serial). SDV304210.

Fox, C., 1940, The Distribution of Currency Bars, 427-432 (Article in Serial). SDV140114.

Iron currency bars probably originated amongst the Dobunni and are the sole examples to be found in the territory of the Dumnonii. The Iron Age inhabitants of Hembury and Holne Chase camps were probably comparatively wealthy.

Fox, A, 1950, Two Greek Silver Coins from Holne, South Devon, 153-155 (Article in Serial). SDV164514.

Allen, D., 1967, Iron currency bars in britain, 307 (Article in Serial). SDV140110.

Barber, J., 1967, Twenty Ninth Report on Archaeology and Early History, 318-319 (Article in Serial). SDV280587.

A hoard of 12 iron currency bars found in a rabbit burrow in Holne Chase, in a clitter of rocks between the small Iron Age hill fort and the River Dart. Mostly broken by the finder and used as cucumber frame supports originally said to be about 610mm long and 51mm wide. They belong to the normal western type of bar currency, as found in Gloucester and Dorset. Early Iron Age.

Silvester, R. J., 1979, The Relationship of First Millennium Settlement to the Upland Areas of the South West, 183 (Article in Serial). SDV177352.

Hingley, R., 1990, Iron Age Currency Bars: The Archaeological and Social Context, 91-117 (Article in Serial). SDV140117.

Hingley discusses the significance of the location of the finds in relation to the settlement boundary of Holne Chase Camp, c. 50m away.

Riley, H., 1996, Holne Chase Castle, Holne, Devonshire, 4 (Report - Survey). SDV164507.

Sources / Further Reading

Associated Monuments

Associated Finds

• FDV3316 - CURRENCY BAR (Iron Age - 700 BC to 42 AD)
• FDV5829 - HOARD (Iron Age - 700 BC to 42 AD)

Associated Events: none recorded

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