RARE Bronze axes unearthed by a metal detectorist in Furness are to go on display for the first time.

The three Iron Age artefacts, dating back almost 3,000 years, will be exhibited at Barrow's Dock Museum this November alongside other historic pieces found in the area.

Experts have claimed the axes, which date back to between 800BC and 600BC, reveal more about the history of Furness than any other find.

Two of the axes, which were found in Ulverston earlier this year, came from the same mould. They could possible have been made by the same person who created four axes found at Skelmore Heads at Urswick in 1902.

The axes will appear with other recent finds when a new gallery, exhibiting artefacts from the Stone Age all the way through to the Medieval Times, opens at the museum.

Among the items on display will be the 92 silver coins and ingots found by a metal detector at Stainton, near Dalton, in 2010.

North-west finds liaison officer Dot Boughton said: "I really like this find (more so than the Viking hoard) because it gives us a direct connection, not only with the more distant but also more recent past of the Furness area.”

"I'm excited because they are so rare. I'm not sure what has been going on but we have had some very significant finds recently."

In October Darren Webster, of Carnforth, discovered a huge Viking hoard on the Cumbria/ North Lancashire border. Soon after a Chinese coin hoard was found in Furness and a crozier and ring were discovered in the tomb of a monk at Furness Abbey.