52°20′35″N0°24′40″E / 52.343°N 0.411°E /52.343; 0.411TheIsleham Hoard is ahoard of more than 6,500 pieces of worked and unworkedbronze, dating from theBronze Age, found in 1959 by William 'Bill' Houghton and his brother, Arthur, atIsleham, nearEly, in the English county ofCambridgeshire.
It is the largest Bronze Age hoard ever discovered in England and one of the finest. It consists in particular of swords, spear-heads, arrows, axes,palstaves, knives, daggers, armour, decorative equipment (in particular for horses) and many fragments of sheet bronze,[1] all dating from theWilburton-Wallington Phase of the lateBronze Age (about 1000BCE). The swords show holes whererivets orstuds held the woodenhilts in place.
The greater part of these objects have been entrusted toSt Edmundsbury Borough Council Heritage Service and some are on display atWest Stow Anglo-Saxon Village outsideBury St Edmunds, while other items are held by theMuseum of Archaeology and Anthropology, University of Cambridge inCambridge.[2]