Salcombe Designated Wrecksite
For many years members of staff at Bournemouth University have worked in close collaboration with members of the South West Maritime Archaeology Group (SWMAG)
on a wide range of projects on the South Devon coast. This was formalised when Bournemouth became the archaeological advisors for SWMAG’s Salcombecannon site project.
The site lies in an exposed location approximately 400m offshore in 16-24m of water and comprises a scatter of finds on a seabed that consists of a rocky reef with gullies filled with a silty sand and boulder matrix. Finds from the site are from 3 separate periods, the middle Bronze Age, the 17th century and the early 20th century.
Middle Bronze Age material consists of bronze tools weapons and gold jewellery. All of the identifiable objects are of the same metal working phase of the Middle Bronze Age, (Penard/ Bronze Final I, circa 1300 – 1150 BC), the same period as the finds from Moor Sands site located to the east of the Designated Area (a site originally investigated by the late Keith Muckelroy and now also investigated by SWMAG). The material is all continental in nature, the majority having parrells with contemporary material from the French Atlantic Seaboard, although at least one item appear to have originated from the Mediterranean, being the earliest Mediterranean object located in the UK to date. The presence of this material on the south coast of England would appear to be tangible evidence of cross channel connections ultimately linked in to others traversing the Mediterranean.
The 17th Century material consists of 11 iron cannons and 3 iron anchors, all still in situ. Recovered material consisting of a discrete scatter of finds located on the surface of and within the infill of the gullies over 400 gold coins, broken pieces of gold jewellery and ingots as well as pewter, a sounding weight, pottery sherds and a merchant's seal. The distribution of these finds from the site suggest a ship operating in the Southern North Sea, English Channel, possibly Bristol Channel, Bay of Biscay, the Trafalgar sea region and the Atlantic coast of northwest Africa. The strong biases within the collection are toward the Low Countries and Morocco. The high concentration of Dutch finds suggests a possible Dutch ethnic origin for all or part of the crew, with a high concentration of high status material typical of the merchant class in western Europe at this time. Dating from the finds suggests a date of 1640-50.
The gold coins were struck by the Sharifs of the Sa'dian dynasty, who ruled Morocco during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. The earliest was struck between 1106-43 and that latest between 1631-6) but the bulk of the collection comes from the reigns of two rulers, Ahmad al-Mansur (1578-1603) and his son Zaydan (1608-27) The jewellery consists of many fragmentary pieces all of which are in the Moroccan style and had been cut in antiquity rather than damaged during the loss.
This is a unique find in the history of Britain. It has provided a tangible evidence of a flourishing trade and international connections taking place between North Africa and Europe from the late sixteenth century and the study of the material recovered from the site will undoubtedly add more to this picture.
Within the protected area also lies the wreck of the Barge Lord Napier that sank in 1913 whilst carrying a cargo of bricks from Exeter to Kingsbridge. The site was found and identified by SWMAG in 2007.
Bournemouth work on the site has included providing archaeological advice to SWMAG and undertaking environmental studies of the environment surrounding the site. Bournemouth students have been the allowed the rare privilege to dive to the site on occasions.
