A retired Hartlepool nurse found an axe head dating back 3,500 years to the Bronze Age while out in Northumberland earlier this month.
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00:00I'm in the Hartlepool home of Philip Pugh, and I believe you're a detectorist, is that correct, or have I got that wrong?
00:06I'm a metal detectorist.
00:08While you were out, you found an axe.
00:11I did.
00:12Tell me about it.
00:13Well, it was last Sunday, a week on Sunday, and I was out with the club East Dome Detectors,
00:20and it's an organised event every weekend in different places.
00:24They get permission from the local farms or farms in the region.
00:28And we go as a group and look for history.
00:32I was very fortunate that day to come across a very old Bronze Age axe head,
00:39which is around 3,500 years old.
00:42No.
00:43Yeah, absolutely. It was a surprise to me.
00:46I was absolutely amazed and dumbfounded by what I found, what I recovered.
00:52What did you think?
00:54What did I think? I was absolutely mind-blown.
00:58I was the first person to probably touch this in 3,500 years old.
01:03That is staggering.
01:05It's unbelievable.
01:06How do you feel about that?
01:07I was excited. I looked around. Most people had gone from the field.
01:12In fact, everybody had gone from the field at the time. It was the end of the day.
01:16I'd walked literally another six metres and thought,
01:19I'll do that and then turn around, go back to the van and go home.
01:24I found a number of finds that day, which were good.
01:26Finding anything is really good.
01:28But literally finding that on the last find of the day was just absolutely unbelievable.
01:36What's going to happen to it?
01:38Well, legally, we have to report all finds that are classed as treasure or of historical value.
01:45You have to report those to the finds liaison officer.
01:48They're all in each region.
01:52You've got to do that within 14 days.
01:55I've reported that and I'm waiting for the finds liaison officer to get back to me.
01:59It'll probably then go to a museum to be assessed and reported on.
02:04There'll be two outcomes.
02:06Either one, the museums will either keep it or either look towards purchasing it.
02:13Or they'll return it with a historical report attached.
02:17Either way, it gets reported on.
02:19Personally, I'd rather go to a museum and be shown so everybody can see it.
02:23For me, it's about the history and recovering just these beautiful pieces of workmanship.
02:30Absolutely.