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Uncover the rich history of Elmbridge with our latest online exhibitions
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Looking back to a time where Elmbridge looked very different from its current panorama is key to helping people understand how the physical geography of a location develops. Viewing and handling artefacts from different time periods, such as the Bronze and Stone Ages, helps us to understand how those people lived, worked, interacted and grew together.
By studying historic evidence of crafting, cooking, finery and trade from Elmbridge Museum’s collection, the Year 3 students at St. James C. of E. Primary School in Weybridge learned about the lives of the borough’s early settlers. The students compared their local environment through the lenses of ‘past’ and ‘present’ and the resulting 58 beautifully crafted posters focus on creating an interpretation of how the artefacts were used by the people of the period.
The posters, along with the original museum items used by the students and the discussion topics they considered, can be viewed in this online exhibition.
Throughout history, humans have shaped the environment around them to meet their needs. The early settlers in the Elmbridge area used locally sourced materials to fashion tools and implements to help hunt and cultivate food as well as manipulate the land on which they lived. Simple tools crafted from stone served as axes and knife like implements eased the lifestyle that these early people had created.
Early settlers in the Elmbridge area needed to adapt the local environment to help feed themselves. Using materials such as flint and clay they fashioned items that allowed them to have a diet of raw and cooked foods. The ability to cut or hammer these food sources allowed for easier preparation prior to eating. Eaten raw or cooked, the ability to source and manipulate food using these items was important to Elmbridge’s early people.
After their arrival in AD43, it is easy to see how the Romans started to influence the lives of others already living in the area. Fashionable accessories, such as the ones displayed, give an indication of the status of the Romans and and may have shaped the way early Elmbridge residents started to dress.
This partial brooch is crafted in bronze and was possibly crafted during the Roman occupation of Britain. The brooch made out of a single piece of metal, similar to a safety-pin. The design of men and women’s dress in Roman Britain required that the garments were fastened with brooches.
Roman bronze jewellery items like the bracelet and ring were treasured possessions that reflected a person’s social status, wealth and personal taste.
Crafted from a piece of bronze, this brooch or belt buckle from the time that Romans were living in the UK may have indicated the status of the wearer.
This bronze sestertius of Trajan is from the time of the Roman occupation of Britain. Used as a trading item allowing people to pay for goods, the coin features an image of the Emperor Trajan on one side and the other showing him holding a thunderbolt and crowned by Victory.
Click on the tabs to view more artworks by the students of the Snowy Owl class
Neil drew an axe hammer for digging or chopping
Part of a Roman brooch as drawn by Elena
Isaac drew Roman coins
An axe head as drawn by Jacob
An axe hammer drawn by Felix
Alice drew a flint used for making fire
Finley drew a Bronze Age stone hammer
Mia drew a Roman brooch
The surface of this Neolithic hammer head has been ground with stone to smooth it. The hammer is perforated with a hole for a wooden shaft. The stone appears to be made of basalt. It was likely used to strike prey or to knock other items into place.
This Mesolithic axe or adze is made from buffed brown flint. It is likely to be an adze because of the plano-convex nature of its cutting edge. It has a horizontal chisel-like cutting edge and may have been attached to a handle at it butt.
This Stone Age hammer head was found at the River Wey Ford. It is smoothed basalt rock. It has been shaped and has a hole for attaching the shaft. It was probably used for hammering or striking items.
A lovely example of a Bronze Age Breton style socketed axe head cast in bronze. It was found in the River Wey Ford. It has a square-sectioned mouth, a straight cutting edge and loop above the mouth. It was moulded hollow and hafted to a wooden shaft.
This Mesolithic ‘strike-alight’ or ‘punch’ was fashioned from flint and was used to create fire for cooking. It was one of the first items taken into the Elmbridge Museum’s collection back in 1908.
This very small early Iron Age thumb moulded pot, round based, almost spherical pot of uneven thickness in medium brown “Corky” ware is interesting to view. As something made entirely by hand, this very evenly and skilfully made pot was excavated in 1922-23 from the Iron Age village in Wisley.
A striking example of an Iron Age pot in fine grained dark brown ware. The bowl-shaped pot, rising from small flat base to ridged shoulder, has been ornamented with thumbnail impressions and has a slight neck and flared rim. It may have also been used for storage of items of value to these early settlers.
Grey wares were widely produced making up 80% of all Roman pottery found in Britain. They were typically fired to a high temperature and would primarily have been produced for local markets. Our example may have functioned as a storage container and has four burnished lines around the pot below the main girth joint.
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