When we acquire properties we find lots of things hidden away or piled up in attics and cellars. These are the places that produce the most interesting things and most frustrating!
When the initial inventory was being done at Kingston Lacy we found in a tea-chest this Bronze Age pot.
Bronze Age Pot from Kingston lacy
It’s amazing as its a whole pot, all be it cracked and broken in a few places, a rare find on any site. The big question is which burial mound did it come from? All we could find written on it was Kingston lacy House! There are many Bronze Age burial mounds on the Bankes estate including the Corfe Castle/Purbeck half, and it could have come from any of them! We have no other clues and we don’t have any records of who in the family might have found or acquired it, yet! The best candidate is William John Bankes (1786-1855) who was an Egyptologist and collector who remodeled Kingston Lacy house and filled it with objects from his travels.The answer maybe in the Bankes estate archive, which is vast and still being catalogued.
Old ways of conservation!
A clue maybe found in the way it has been treated to stop the cracks (stuck to stop it falling apart) the technique used and the types of glue will help with a date when it was done but still not when it was found. sigh! It could have been mended years after it was found.
One day we may track it down especially as we hope to get funding to work on the archive which is at the Dorset History Centre.
Even though we don’t know which Barrow it came from it’s a whole pot from thousands of years ago! and very beautiful.
Archaeology National Trust SW 
I was walking up in the woods by St Stephens today. Beautiful. Where do you think the original St Stephens was located on the estate? They say that it was left to disintegrate so wouldn’t the site be full of artefacts?
Dear Ingrid The original chapel was within Kingston Lacy Park 200m north of the present house. If you walk as far as the ha-ha ditch you are close to where we think it was built. John Leyland writing in 1530s said that the chapel was in ruins then. The medieval documents describe repairs to the chapel which was part of Kingston Lacy manor. You might like to read the blog post Merry Christmas Kingston Lacy 1371.
Thank you so much for replying. I honestly didn’t think anyone would. I will read the blog tonight (thanks for the tip) and am definitely going to go on a chapel hunt soon!
Stood at the top of Bradbury rings last weekend looking over the estate….never get bored of the place. 🙂
Your welcome happy to help 🙂
Hi Ingrid, The site is marked out with white road pins and information boards will go out in January so a good time to visit 🙂