A HISTORY OF LANCASHIRE central space between the two series of ridges, and also the margins of the faces, are ornamented with shallow chevrons punched in. The sides have been hammered into three facets, and this has produced slight flanges at the margins of the faces. The facets are ornamented with diagonal lines.' ^ The Read celt is seen to have tended towards side flanges. The third, from Rixton, shows also an incipient feature, in a low ridge, just perceptible to the touch, about midway of the tang, obviously designed to resist the thrust of the handle in use. See the photograph in Plate IV. No. i. The Rixton celt is plain, though it has been erroneously described as ' decorated with punctured lines.' There seems to be no information as to its discovery. Its length is 6| in. The tang widens gradually from ijin. towards the cut- ting edge, which outcurves, having an extreme width of 3I in. The development of ridge and flange illustrated by the foregoing leads directly to the evolution of the palstave.^ 2. Palstaves Perhaps the simplest form of palstave, nearest allied to the flat celt, is that found at Southworth near Warrington. It is not in good preservation, -but it seems to be without side flanges, and almost of flat section, broken only by the definite ridge which was designed to hold back the handle. Its length is 3 in. from edge to ridge, and 4J in. over all the pre- served portion. The edge is not outcurving, measuring only ig in. at its greatest width. It is possible that the portion of the tang which is broken was pierced for a rivet hole, a very unusual feature. See Plate IV. No. 2. The second of these implements, which is also in the museum at War- rmgton, illustrates a further stage of development, revealing the palstave in its simple form. The edge is still hardly outcurving, but the other end is grooved for reception of the handle, showing a narrower section than the blade at that pomt and it is supported on each side by simple flanges and ridge, against which to fix the handle. The length of the blade is 3! in., and of the whole 6 in., with a width at the edge of 2^ in., and at the ridge of i in. The thick- 1 Evans, Bronze Imp. 47 and Fig. 6. ' An instrument which from the picture given, Leigh, Nat. Hist. Lanes, Plate iv. No. 4, seems like a palstaNeis recorded to have been found in a moss at Salwick, Martin Mere ; but it is not roslble from the lUustration to define its precise nature, nor from the description to identify the site. 230 Fig. 13. — Bronze Celt with Slight Flanges from Read. Scale, i : 2. (British Museum).
