File:Bronze Age , Gouge (FindID 745226).jpg

The socket is circular with an exterior diameter of 15.6mm, interior diameter of 12.1mm and is 20.7mm deep. From the socket the blade tapers to a rounded cutting/gouging edge which is concave to one side of the body. The gouging edge is extremely worn.

Peter Reavill, Finds Liaison Officer for Herefordshire & Shropshire, states that this gouge is of Wilberton, Ewart Park or Llyn Fawr metalworking, phases which correspond to Needham's (1996) Period's 6 - 8.

The metal has a dark greenish-brown patina and is worn. The gouge is 49.6mm long, 15.6mm in diameter at the socket, 13.4mm x 7.1mm at the cutting edge and the walls are 1.9mm thick. The object weighs 23.5g.

Comparable socketed gouges have been recorded on the PAS database. For examples see: SWYOR-FCB525, NMGW-62C84F, DUR-06F0E8, IOW-EC25A7 and SUR-7898C5. The latter record notes that: "Socketed gouges have been found associated with metalwork assemblages of Wilberton (eg. Guilsfield, Savory, 1980, No. 268. 64-65) through Ewart Park (eg Penwyllt, Savory 1980, No 284. 7-8) and Llyn Fawr (Savory 1980, No 291 9-11). Savory (ibid., p 55) suggests that the earliest examples have multiple mouth mouldings, while later examples have a plain or broad, flat collar. It is difficult to suggest a date for this example with a prominent single, slender moulding. According to Pearce in the 1983 publication 'The Bronze Age Metalwork of South Western Britain Part I', page 43, socketed gouges 'appear to have begun in the Wilburton phase, and continued as part of the tool repertoire until the end of the Bronze Age', although she suggests that most socketed gouges can be dated to the Ewart phase between c. 1000 - c. 800 BC. Needham et al's (1997) recent study of Bronze Age chronology dated a collared socketed gouge from the Bodwrog Hoard, Anglesey to 2720 +- 45 BP (DoB No 3, OxA-4652, p68)."