Context (Related Documents)
Old label accompanying object adds: "No prov - ?Cambs - Ex Trinity Coll. Library"
Event Date
Author: Imogen Gunn (admin)

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Context (Production / use)
Three lead tanks have been found in Icklingham: this one, found in c. 1725, one found in 1939 and in the British Museum (1946,0204.1), and one found in 1971 and in Ipswich Museum (1972.43). Mawer (1994) argues that all three are from the same workshop.
Event Date
Author: Imogen Gunn (admin)

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Context (Field collection)
Found c. 1725. According to Salmon (1728): 'About three Years ago a Leaden Cistern was found here [Icklingham, Suffolk] by a Ploughman, the Share striking against the Edge of it. The Treasure it had conceal'd was gone. The Cistern is in being; it contains about sixteen Gallons, perforated on each Side for Rings to lift it by. There is ornamental Work on the Outside of it, imitating Hoops of Iron, but cast with the Thing it self. On one Side is a Mark A, perhaps intending the Measure or Use of it' (p. 161). [See Mawer (1994) for discussion of the inconsistencies and probable inaccuracies of some of these details.]
Event Date 1725
Author: Imogen Gunn (admin)

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Context (References)
Salmon, Nathaniel. (1728). A New Survey of England, Volume I. London: J. Roberts. p. 161
Event Date 1728
Author: Imogen Gunn (admin)

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Context (References)
Camden, William (Gough, Richard ed.). (1789). Britannia II. London: John Nichols. p. 81, Pl. II
Event Date 1789
Author: Imogen Gunn (admin)

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Context (Display)
Thomas McKenny Hughes displayed a drawing of this tank at the meeting of the Cambridge Antiquarian Society meeting on 17 March 1879.
Event Date 17/3/1879
Author: Imogen Gunn (admin)

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Context (References)
Hughes, T. McKenny. (1881). 'Report Presented to the Cambridge Antiquarian Society at the AGM, May 26th, 1879'. Proceedings of the Cambridge Antiquarian Society, vol. 4(2). pp. xiv-xvi.
Event Date 1881
Author: Imogen Gunn (admin)

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Context (References)
Page, William (ed). (1911). The Victoria County History of Suffolk: Volume 1. Folkestone: William Dawson & Sons Ltd. p. 309
Event Date 1911
Author: Imogen Gunn (admin)

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Context (Acquisition Details)
Thomas McKenny Hughes exhibited a drawing of this tank at a meeting of the Cambridge Antiquarian Society on 17 March 1879, in which it was noted to be 'preserved in the Library of Trinity College' (p. xiv), and it was in MAA by at least 1934 (according to Clare Fell (in Donovan, 1934): 'Formerly in Trinity College Library. Provenance unknown, but a local origin is most likely' (p. 116)). It is therefore highly likely that the tank was part of the large deposit of material by Trinity College to MAA in 1914.
Event Date 1914
Author: Imogen Gunn (admin)

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Context (References)
Donovan, H.E. (1934). 'Excavation of a Romano-British Building at Bourton on the Water, Gloucestershire.' Transactions of the Bristol and Gloucestershire Archaeological Society, vol. 56. pp. 116-117, Fig. 9.2
Event Date 1934
Author: maa

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Description (Physical description)
Clare Fell (in Donovan): 'A band covers the join of the base and sides, and there are wider bands with incised herring-bone pattern, round the upper part and over the vertical joins. The lugs are smaller than [Z 46782], and there is a band of cable-pattern under the flanged rim. In the panels are from two to five raised circles arranged in rows, and in two of the panels the circles are joined by straight raised lines.'
Event Date 1934
Author: Imogen Gunn (admin)

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Context (References)
(1935). 'Roman Britain in 1934'. Journal of Roman Studies, 25(2). Pl. XXXVI.1
[Note: incorrectly labelled as 2]
Event Date 1935
Author: Imogen Gunn (admin)

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Context (References)
Curwen, E.C. (1943). 'Roman Lead Cistern from Pulborough, Sussex.' The Antiquaries Journal, 23(3-4). pp. 155-157.
Event Date 1943
Author: Imogen Gunn (admin)

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Context (References)
West, Stanley and Plouviez, Judith. (1977). 'The Romano-British Site at Icklingham'. In Carr, R.D. et al. Suffolk, Various Papers. East Anglian Archaeology 3. pp. 64-65 & 74
Event Date 1977
Author: Imogen Gunn (admin)

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Context (References)
Christopher J. Guy (1978). 'A Roman Lead Tank from Burwell, Cambridgeshire.' Proceedings of the Cambridge Antiquarian Society, vol. 68. pp. 1-4
Event Date 1978
Author: Imogen Gunn (admin)

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Context (References)
Guy, Christopher J. (1981). 'Roman circular lead tanks in Britain'. Britannia, 12. pp 271-276.
Event Date 1981
Author: Imogen Gunn (admin)

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Context (References)
Watts, Dorothy J. (1988). 'Circular Lead Tanks and Their Significance for Romano-British Christianity'. The Antiquaries Journal, 68(2). pp. 210-222, Fig. 3d
[Note: incorrectly identified as from Cambridge]
Event Date 1988
Author: Imogen Gunn (admin)

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Description (Physical description)
Lead Tank/vat with rings (?)+ patterned bands
Event Date 7/12/1992
Author: maa

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Context (References)
Mawer, Frances. (1994). 'The Lost Lead Tank From Icklingham, Suffolk'. Britannia, 25. pp. 232-236.
Event Date 1994
Author: Imogen Gunn (admin)

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Context (Physical description)
See archive (GO2/12/12) for Mawer's 1994 article and note from auther
Event Date 30/11/1994
Author: Imogen Gunn (admin)

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Description (Physical description)
Circular lead tank with a flat base, straight sides and a rolled rim; two rectangular lugs with circular perforations protrude from the rim on opposite sides. Decorated below the rim with a band of cable pattern, followed by a thick horizontal band of herringbone pattern, intersected by seven vertical lines in the same pattern. In-between these lines are rows of three, four or five circular protrusions, some of which have been joined together by ridged lines. One side of the container has collapsed and part of the rim is missing.
Event Date 23/4/2021
Author: Louise Puckett

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Context (Amendments / updates)
Frances Mawer (1994) convincingly argues that this previously unprovenanced (beyond '?Cambs') tank is actually the lead tank found c. 1725 from Icklingham, Suffolk and believed to have been lost. The Place field has been updated accordingly and the record updated with Field Collection information, etc.
Event Date 26/7/2022
Author: Imogen Gunn (admin)