Higham Ferrers's flint axe find had the experts guessing "No use of modern tools"

And questions about whether the axe is a fascinating find – dating from the Neolithic period – and real, or a fabulous fake, have now been laid to rest.

The mystery began when a visitor to Higham Ferrers’s monthly Saturday market gifted a range of treasures to the Tourism Committee that used to belong to a family who lived and farmed at Chichele College during the days when it was a farm and a farmhouse.

John (Jack) and Rose Thorpe and their children Maud and Ray, lived and farmed at the college with Ray amassing a collection of games and toys, Meccano sets, wooden jigsaw puzzles, letters bearing the original stamps and a variety of other artefacts.

There was one item in the collection that was particularly interesting to the Tourism Committee and members of the Higham Ferrers Archaeological Research Society (HiFARS) who meet at Chichele College: and that was the ancient-looking flint axe which was uncovered by Jack Thorpe while ploughing in a local field.

"HiFARS members were jumping up and down with glee about the flint axe,” Carol Fitzgerald, a member of Higham Ferrers Tourism, Chair of the Chichele College Management Committee – a tourism sub-committee – and Secretary of The Friends of St Mary’s, told Northamptonshire Heritage Forum’s recent History Day held in Higham Ferrers’s Hope Methodist Church.

HiFARS member, Professor Sarah Scott, a professor of archaeology at the University of Leicester and Director the University’s Heritage Hub, told the packed History Day audience that she was keen to help research the axe’s origins.

“I wrapped it up in a sock and took it to Chester House (the Archaeology Resource Centre) on the same day that there were two visiting independent scholars who were looking at axes there,” she recalled.

“The question became, was it real or was it a fake as there had been a growing market in forgeries,” she said.

“I thought it would be fantastic to take the axe to the University of Leicester’s state-of-the-art laboratory with its incredible equipment,” she recounted.

Shortly afterwards, a busload of members of the Tourism Committee, the Chichele College Management Committee and HiFARS, visited the University’s School of Archaeology and Ancient History where they were told that the “beautifully made” axe was created using good quality material and that it had been made by someone with skill and a knowledge of different materials.

And no modern tools had been used in its manufacture.

Comparative data from different flint stones would still have to be made, the university visitors were told.

While results at that stage were inconclusive – partly because the axe had been well handled – there was still a high chance it dated to the Neolithic Period (from 4000 to 2200 BC).

The still-curious Higham Ferrers party later visited Chester House where every single axe that had ever been found in Northamptonshire was spread out before them.

“And ours was the biggest and the best,” Carol Fitzgerald bragged.

Professor Scott said later that there was not much more research that the experts could do.

So, is it a real Neolithic flint axe?

“There is a very real chance it is: it is not beyond the realms of possibility,” she said.

On show

The flint axe, which is normally held at Chester House, is currently on show at the Northampton Museum & Art Gallery’s “History of Northamptonshire in 100 Objects” exhibition which runs until February 8, 2026.

(A replica was made for Heritage Day).

An illustrated companion book, featuring all 100 objects, has also been produced.

Meanwhile, back in Higham Ferrers, Tourism Committee member Pam Webbley curated a special exhibition at Chichele College profiling the story of the Thorpe family and showcasing the many objects donated to the committee. The exhibition continues this coming weekend (October 25 and 26).