Neolithic ‘doorstop’ axe on show at town’s new museum

But now, a 5,000 year old axe head is set to go on show to the public, as one of the oldest objects in the new Experience Barnsley museum.

The Neolithic axe head, dating back to the Stone Age, was discovered when Scout Dike reservoir was built between Penistone and Ingbirchworth in South Yorkshire in the 1920s.

It was kept at Barnsley Corporation waterworks until it was taken home by Bob Wadsworth’s father in the 1970s.

Mr Wadsworth, 69, said: “My father worked at the waterworks and ended up with it. He brought it to our house 30 or 40 years ago and gave it to one of my sons.

“Over the years it was used as a doorstop and spent the rest of the time in the back of the garden shed.

“When I heard about the museum wanting artefacts I thought they might want to add this to the display so people could appreciate it.”

Joann Fletcher, a broadcaster and research fellow at the University of York, is an archaeological consultant on the collection at Experience Barnsley.

She said: “The axe head allows us to date Barnsley’s history back thousands of years. The history of Barnsley only dated back to early Medieval times before this but we can now push it back much further than that.”

Experience Barnsley, a new £4.3m visitor attraction, is set to open to the public on Thursday June 27 on the ground floor of Barnsley Town Hall.

Admission will be free, and it will be open seven days a week.