Discovery of an Ancient Boat in Warboys Fen

 

In digging gault with which to clay a field in Warboys Fen, the workmen discovered some few years ago an ancient boat; thishad been doubted by some persons but in December 1909 it was decided to examine the find, when the boat was soon located but the weather not being propitious, work was suspended till 31^st March 1910, when the water having been pumped out of the pit which had been dug, the clay was removed from within and about the boat.

 

Mr. St. John Hope of the Society of Antiquaries, London, Baron von Hugel and the rev. F.G.Walker of the Cambridge Antiquarian Society; Messrs J.W.Bodger and C. Dack of the Peterborough Natural history and Historical Society, Mr. S. Inskip ladds, Rev. W.M.Noble of the Cambs and Hunts Archaeological Society, Mr Harvey of Northampton the owner of the land and Mr. Taylor the tenant and others were present.

 

The boat is in a field adjoining Puddock Drove in the parish of warboys and was found to be 188 feet from the SE boundary and 133 feet from the SW boundary measuring to the bow, which pointed SE.

 

The length of the boat is 37 feet over all and it is 3 feet 9 inches wide at its widest part, the stern and 3 feet at the bow. It has been cut out of a solid oak tree and has a flat bottom, 3 inches thick, the sides are slightly curved inwards and have a thickness of only 1 ¾ inches.

 

The sides may have lost some little in height but are in places 15 inches high, they had assumed towards the middle of the boat a very curved form; probably the original curve was slight and this has been accentuated by the sides warping and giving way with age. The sides are extremely brittle  and break with the slightest touch, but the bottom is much harder, the stern which had been left of considerable thickness is the hardest part of all.

 

In making the boat the workmen had left traverse ledges, evidently to give strength, these were worked in the solid and not inserted, they were about 3 inches wide and 2 inches high.

 

There may have been probably were more than the 4 discovered but if so they have been completely worn away and indeed those that remain are only represented by small and muc worn fragments.

 

The sides were also strengthened by strong cleats fixed in the angles between the bottom and sides but nearly all of these have disappeared, a few fragments only remaining to bear witness to their existence.

 

The boat lay with its bow pointing SE, the upper surface of the bottom or floor of the boat being 4 feet below the surface of the ground at the stern and 4 feet 2 inches below at the bow the forward part of the boat has a slight list to the right.

 

The boat was completely embedded in the clay locally called gault: the ground in which it was found consisting of the following:

·        First 12 inches peat artificially mixed with clay, this being the cultivated surface

·        The next 12 inches consists of peat

·        And below is gault

So that the upper surface of the boat was nowhere less than 4 feet below the surface of the ground and 2 feet below the surface of the gault.

Miller and Sketchley in their work “The Fenland” say at “least 7,000 years have elapsed since the climate was favourable for the growth of peat.”

Was the boat made before the peat was formed or can it by any possibility have sunk through the peat and clay to the position in which it was found?