Mountsorrel Quarry deservedly has a reputation as the producer of granite of exceptional quality and in the course of quarrying for the famous pink granite, important archaeological discoveries have been made in Mountsorrel.
In the summer of 1881, men working on the southern slope of Broad Hill discovered a small chamber just below the surface. It was a rough quadrilateral shape measuring about 8`3” by 7` (2.51m.x 2.13m.) and constructed of surface granite and blue lias limestone mortar.
Apart from pieces of slate found on the floor there were a few oyster and other types of shell, small bones and pieces of horn. This discovery was known locally as the sepulchre.
Pieces of Swithland slate on the floor may well have been part of a roof. The walls were over a foot (30.5cm) in thickness and 4” (10.2cm) high in their best-preserved parts. These walls were lined with yellow plaster on which were painted a series of red, irregularly-spaced vertical bands of varying width. A narrow horizontal band, also in red, joined two of the vertical bands near the top of the wall and a similar line continued around the remaining walls, at a lower level. A similar line, this time in black, ran along the wall about a foot from the floor, all around the chamber. Less well-preserved were patches of red designs painted on a white background.
Two years previously, another chamber had been opened about 12 yards (10.97m) away, though this one was not as sophisticated as the later discovery in that it was of a rough construction and not plastered. The floor was of rough Swithland slate laid in clay or very poor lime concrete. However, inside the chamber were some interesting “finds” – bones of a deer, deer antlers showing some saw-marks, pieces of dark pottery and tiles, fragments of coloured wall plaster and a small iron arrow-head. Nearby were also found a small bronze gouge (chisel) and a stone quern (hand-mill for grinding corn).
By far the most remarkable find was made in 1892 when, as a result of blasting in the quarry, a Roman well was uncovered, sunk 60 feet (18.3m) into a natural rock fissure on Broad Hill. The eminent Cambridge archaeologist, Baron Anatole von Hugel examined the well and documented what he found there.
Some fragments of Roman pottery were found in the soil which the workmen had cleared out of the well – amongst them a pitcher with strong loops for drawing water from the well and some bricks and tiles. The item which had attracted the quarrymen’s attention, however, was a wooden bucket with bronze fittings, dating from the late Celtic period. When the quarry workers unearthed it, the bucket was virtually intact but their failure to realise its importance led to it being roughly treated and broken.
After as many of the pieces of the bucket as possible had been gathered up, reconstruction could take place. Baron von Hugel determined that the item consisted of 17 quite substantial pine-wood staves of 3.5” (8.9cm) wide by 0.3” (7.6mm) thick. Three broad bands of bronze circled the bucket at the top, middle and bottom. These bands were both functional and decorative in that the metal added strength to the bucket but the decoration is a fine example of Celtic workmanship. Two shield-like plates, one at the top of the bucket pointing down and one at the bottom pointing up, are placed on opposite sides of the bucket. Each contains five circular bosses and studs – four for decoration but the lowest one fixed into the wood of the bucket to strengthen it. The middle band is in fact two pieces of bronze whose joint was hidden by a small ornamental stamped bronze plate on which is a boss and stud, similar to the ones on the top and bottom bands.
There are signs that some of these studs had worked loose at some point and had been repaired but in a less decorative manner.
The fastenings for the lugs for the handle are interesting as they are in the shape of an ox – head with curved horns. Such animal representations were common and date from earlier times when animal sacrifice was an important part of religious life.
The bucket was approximately 13” (33cm) high with a curved, solid bronze handle. Pieces of other, more roughly-constructed buckets were found in the well – one having been cut from a solid block of wood rather than constructed of staves.
Such a highly-decorated item indicates that it was a ceremonial bucket which suggests that there was probably a temple or shrine on Broad Hill.
The Mountsorrel Bucket remains one of the most valuable artefacts of its time.