THE debris of a Bronze Age meal helped lead a Carnforth metal detector to the find of a lifetime.

Amateur historian John Harrison unearthed a Bronze Age axe head along with a hoard of five silver coins from around 1130 A.D.

at a site in North Carnforth.

Mr Harrison, who has nearly 25 years of experience of metal detecting, said: "I had a feeling about the place, I could tell by the lay of the land it had not been walked on for a long time.

"I noticed scattered piles of very old cockle shells which showed somebody, a long time ago, had had a feast there and I knew that the Bronze Age people would eat them in lean times.

Once I found the axe I knew exactly what I had got."

His elation was compounded when, less than month later, he found a Roman coin at Arnside dating from Emperor Trajan's reign, around 100 A.D.

"I have had an absolutely wonderful fortnight," he said.

It is believed that the silver coins were struck during The Anarchy, a period of history of which it is said that "God and the Angels slept" and it is quite likely that they were buried for safe keeping.

"It was a very complex period of history because at that time many Dukes and Barons wanted to lay claim to the throne.

If you were caught in possession of coins with the wrong head on them, you could be killed," said Mr Harrison.

He believes the axe head could have been finished by people from Ireland who travelled through the area using trade routes.

"Three and a half thousand years ago metal work was in its infancy in this country and it could well be that whoever made the axe head was shown by the Irish how to finish it off."

Andrew White, of Lancaster Museum, welcomed the find.

"The axe is quite uncommon as relatively few have been found in this area and the coin hoard is particularly unusual.

Because this area was not particularly rich in the middle ages we see relatively little treasure of this kind."

The coins are being assessed by the British Museum and will be the subject of a coroner's hearing.