Old log lay on river bank near Market Drayton for four years before being revealed as an ancient treasure 100 years ago
At a casual glance, it looks like an oddly-shaped piece of wood. But this was no random log pulled from the River Tern near Market Drayton. It was a rare relic from prehistoric days which was given the name the Mucklestone Canoe.
When it was first discovered there was little or no fanfare as it was difficult to be sure what it actually was. People on the Oakley estate where it was found thought the hollowed out oak trunk might be a very early trough or water carrier.
That may explain why 100 years ago - 1926 - is sometimes given as the date of its discovery, as that is when it was positively identified as a primitive dugout canoe and came to wider public attention. When viewed by local antiquarian T Pape it was lying on the bank and becoming overgrown with nettles and other weeds, having been pulled from the river four years previously by Mr Dennis of Oakley Park, and one of his men, a Mr Jones.
Pape noted that in the many centuries since the canoe was fashioned the course of the Tern had greatly altered, and at the point where it was found the stream flowed close by a steep wooded slope leading to Betton.
Dugout canoes are almost impossible to date by their design alone, but the Mucklestone Canoe is reckoned to be between 3,000 and 4,000 years old. And there is good news, as it still exists. In late 1958 or at the start of 1959 it was transferred from Oakley to the then Birmingham City Museum and Fine Arts Gallery.
Speaking in February 1959, Mr Dennis - Pape gave his first name as Cyril but others say Charles - of Park House, Oakley, said he had discovered the canoe about 30 years previously. His curiosity was aroused when he noticed a piece of timber sticking out above the water level in the River Tern near Oakley Hall.
After he recovered the canoe, it was dried and treated in various ways, and then placed in a cave to protect it from the weather, before giving it to the museum in the 1950s when it showed an interest.
The information held by the museum is that it is "part (probably the stern end) of an oak dugout canoe from Oakley Park, near Mucclestone, (sic) Staffs. This was found in the bank of the River Tern in 1926 and presented to Birmingham by C.C. Dennis, Esq., in 1958.”
Years ago a then 83-year-old Mrs June Humphreys of Oswestry shared her memories. She used to live at Mucklestone Lodge, her name in those days being Mrs June Pierce, wife of Derek Pierce.
“I have got a recollection of my husband and the rest of them coming down to Mucklestone Lodge and saying they had to open the sluice gates from the lake behind Oakley Hall because it was getting too full with the heavy rains and this piece of wood had come out as the water dropped,” she told us.
The canoe is not on display, being held in the ground floor extension of the Birmingham Museums collection centre, but there are still ways to view it.
“People can see the canoe during our Explore the Store tours visiting during our open hours which are currently on Wednesdays from 12.30pm to 2.30pm. We also have open days, usually a Saturday, twice a year where the canoe can also be seen,” said a spokeswoman for Birmingham Museums.
