3 dug out canoes ... were found 15ft below the surface, during gravel quarrying in an old meander of the River Trent, --/12/1967. Canoe 1 - the bow was torn off by dragline …a 12-spoked wheel lay horizontally under the boat's centre portion. An estimate of c 23 feet for the boat's original length seems reasonable. It was punt-shaped with parallel sides, flat bottom, of oak. The hull was made of one piece, with a ledge for a seat 3ft from the stern. The stern was split longitudinally and attempts had been made in antiquity to repair it. At the exposed centre of the trunk a lead strip had been nailed vertically over the split (using iron nails). The boat's position suggests it was overwhelmed by flooding and came to rest only where further passage downstream was blocked by a tree trunk. Boat 1 and the wheel must be contemporary in terms of their deposition. (1)
A radiocarbon date of c 230 BC (2180bp +/- 110) has been given by Birmingham University for wood from the gunwale of (canoe 1). (4)
See L7993 for ? Ro wheel, L795 for IA pottery, L797 and L798 for other canoes.

<1> Thoroton Society, 1968, TTS, pp 14-31 (Published document). SNT381.

<2> Thoroton Soc, 1968, Newsletter, p 4 (Published document). SNT1344.

<3> Prehistoric Society, 1979, Proceedings of the Prehistoric Society, pp 159-60 (Published document). SNT292.

<4> EMAB eds, 1977, East Midlands Archaeological Bulletin, p 45 (Published document). SNT162.