THE mystery has deepened about what happened to a centuries-old carved stone head which was dug up by a schoolboy in a Dalton garden in 1949

The original finder, Harold Gathercole, spotted the appeal in the Mail on June 7 and got in touch to say that the stone head was life sized and he found it at a depth of 18 inches.

The head had gone to the old town museum which was above the Barrow Central Library in Ramsden Square.

Mr Gathercole left Furness to join the Army and returned to Dalton around 1970.

When the museum closed around 1992 he understands that the stone head was among items which had been packed up in the library basement

The story of the finding of the head - almost 70 years ago - was spotted by Dan Elsworth, director of Ulverston-based Greenlane Archaeology in the February 2, 1949, edition of the Mail.

He said: "I'd be very keen to know where it ended up and if someone has it locally.”

The report noted: "Digging in the garden at his home recently, 12-years-old Harold Gathercole, son of Mr and Mrs J. V. Gathercole, of 9 Ann Street, Dalton, unearthed a sandstone head.”

It was thought that the head could have been from Dalton Castle, or from Furness Abbey.

If you know what happened to the stone head, get in touch with Bill Myers at the Memories Page on bill.myers@nwemail.co.uk

Stone heads are not the only thing to have come from the ground in Furness.

In December 1904 two gold quarter noble coins from the reign of Edward III were found in Barrow.

They were both discovered near Furness Abbey, the find spot of one coin being described as Croslands Park.

In 1908 a silver penny of Edward 1 was fund at Douglas Street, Vickerstown, Walney.

Beetham churchyard gave up a treasure of Anglo-Saxon and Norman coins in1834.

A penny of Edward the Confessor and two pennies of William the Conqueror from the silver coin hoard were presented to the Society of Antiquaries by Mr Reveley.

The coins were found during the digging of a grave.

Around 20 tiny stycas - from the era before the Viking raids on England - were found in November 1914 close to wall uncovered by digging in the vicarage garden at Lancaster Parish Church.

Seven more stycas, including coins from the ninth century reigns of Edelred nd Eanred, were found in Merlewood Cave, near Grange in 1892.

The cave was excavated in the face of a cliff, just below Merlewood House.

How other tiny coins called sceats were used in northern England - and extensively copied - was explained in a talk by Tony Abramson from the University of York.

He was speaking at a conference of the British Association of Numismatic Societies held at Harrogate.

These early Anglo-Saxon silver coins were issued under the authority of northern bishops in the period from 685 to 829.

There are hundreds of different types, often with Christian images or with designs based on much earlier Roman coins.

There was a proliferation of copies which seem to have been widely accepted.

He said: "We don't know what was official and what was unofficial money.

"This was a very chaotic period."