Transactions of the Cumberland & Westmorland Antiquarian & Archaeological Society 66 (series 2)

A hoard of iron tools found in a presumed well-shaft at the tilery apparently associated with the Stanegate auxiliary fort at Brompton, Cumberland, is illustrated and described. Associated pottery suggests a date c AD 125 for deposition of the hoard. Sixty objects are catalogued; few have any obvious association with operations at a tilery, but many of them are paralleled at military sites like Newstead and could therefore have come from Brampton fort itself, though the absence of purely military equipment is surprising. In the hoard are artisan's tools, agricultural tools, fittings from buckets, doors and furniture, and structural pieces from buildings or carts. In the present state of knowledge it is impossible to divide the hoard into 'Roman' and 'native' items, especially as Roman influence was arriving in Britain via the Belgae before the Conquest, and as the army itself was of such varied cultural background. Possible reasons for the deposition of the hoard are discussed; no conclusion can be reached, but attention is drawn to the known Belgic practice of making votive offerings of metal objects in wells and lakes.