ANNUAL BUSINESS MEETING. Iv. 



The following report of the ACQUISITIONS TO THE DORSET 

 COUNTY MUSEUM, May, 1920 May, 1921, was read by the 

 Curator, CAPT. J. E. ACLAND, F.S.A. 



During the past 12 months we have been specially fortunate in receiving, 

 either as gifts or as loans a number of objects (mostly of the pre-historic 

 or Roman periods) which have greatly enriched the different collections 

 in the County Museum. 



In October, 1920, Mr. A. D. Pass, of Wootton Fitzpaine, presented 32 

 fine Palaeolithic flint, or chert implements, which were found about 20 years 

 ago in the well-known Broom gravel pits, in the valley of the Axe, near 

 Hawkchurch. They are a welcome addition to those we already possessed 

 from the same locality; some from Mr. E. Cunnington's collection purchased 

 in 1889, and others given by B. A. Hogg, in 1896. 



A still more important collection of Palaeoliths will be placed in The 

 Museum before long, the result of many years research work in Dorset by 

 the late Rev. W. Marsden of Moreton. I am not able to speak of them in 

 detail to-day; but they have been examined by Mr. Reginald Smith of the 

 British Museum, and by Mr. Sebastian Evans, and considered by these 

 authorities to be a remarkable and valuable addition to the pre-historic 

 relics of the County. Mrs. Marsden is most generously providing a new 

 case to contain the whole collection, which will be deposited here on loan, 

 and be called " The Marsden Collection," 



I must next refer to the Bronze-age Sword recovered from the 

 Weymouth Backwater during the construction of the new bridge, having 

 been brought up in the " grab " from a depth of four feet below the present 

 bed of clay. This sword having been exhibited at the Club's meeting in 

 February last by Mr. Vere Oliver, and having been carefully described by 

 him at the time, I need only say that it remains in the Museum as a loan 

 from the Weymouth Corporation. At the same meeting we acquired 

 (also as a loan) from Mr. Edwin Seward, F.R.I.B.A., of Weymouth, a 

 remarkably pretty Bronze-age rapier. It was found in a fissure of a 

 quarry, which appears to have expanded into a small cavern formed in the 

 Inferior Oolite stratum near Clifton Maybank, Bradford Abbas. The 

 fissure was filled with the yellow sand of the locality, the rapier being 

 12 feet from the upper surface. 



It may be remembered that some years ago the Club held a summer 

 meeting at Ringwood and Moyles Court, when, under the guidance of Mr. 

 Fred. Fane, the sites of Roman Pottery Kilns were visited, the description 

 of which is given in Volume XV, of our Proceedings. The investigation of 

 the New Forest Pottery sites has been carried on energetically by Mr. 

 Hey wood Sumner, F.S.A. , who has presented us with specimens of typical 

 sherds found at Ashley Rails and Sloden, and also with the printed reports 

 of his excavations at Old Sloden Inclosure, and Black Heath Meadow, 



