Last updated at 14:24, Friday, 27 April 2012

A BRONZE Age antler has been discovered on a Furness beach by an eight-year-old fossil enthusiast.

Jamie Cassidy was combing South Walney beach when he spotted what looked like a stick poking through the shingle.

The stick turned out to be the tip of a three-foot antler horn which was buried beneath the surface.

The size of the antler, which has been preserved intact, suggests it came from a red deer stag which were widely hunted in the Bronze Age.

Jamie, of Ormsgill, Barrow, said: “It was kind of sticking out of the stones. I started brushing the stones away and found it was an antler.

“I went on this guided walk with my mam and a man called Dave Coward (amateur archeologist) on South Walney, and he said if you ever find an antler it would be about 4,000 years old.

“I rang the bird sanctuary and told them about it and they have got a pair.

“They said that before the medieval times that area was one big forest and red deer would have been killed or hunted.”

The Year Four pupil showed the antler to his classmates at St Pius X Catholic Primary School yesterday and plans to donate his find to Barrow’s Dock Museum.

Standing beside the antler, which is more than half his height, Jamie said: “I think he was a big deer.”

And the youngster intends to continue his search for hidden treasure.

“We stay in a caravan at South Walney and I’ve got a big tub of belemnites and ammonites which I’ve found,” he said.

“Belemnites are long fossils that look like ice-cream cones and ammonites are fossils which curl round.

“People say they can be over a million years old.”

Jamie’s other finds include a collection of arrowheads, which were concealed close to where he discovered the antler.

During the medieval period the Furness Peninsula was farmed by the monks of Furness Abbey and Jamie says if you dig deep enough there are treasures waiting to be found.

“If you dig away you can find flint stones,” said Jamie.

“And I found a spoon which looks really old.”

First published at 13:14, Friday, 27 April 2012
Published by http://www.walneylocal.co.uk