Rare Bronze Age artefacts unearthed by metal detector enthusiasts will help future generations piece together a picture of life in ancient Wharfedale.

The two bronze axe heads, essential tools for early farmers cutting down trees and cultivating the land thousands of years ago, have been donated to Ilkley’s Manor House Museum by the two metal detector fans who discovered them.

The ‘finds’ were made in Addingham almost 20 years apart, the first by Geoff Lowcock and the second by friend David Harrison, former Deputy Lord Mayor of Bradford.

Last week the two signed over the axe heads, dated from between 2,200 BC and 1,800 BC, to the Bradford Council-run museum, on Castle Yard.

The new exhibits will join a museum display of flint tools, sword blades, pottery and other objects from Wharfedale’s distant past.

The axe heads have little monetary value today, but for anyone wanting to learn more about the lives of early settlers in Wharfedale, they are a precious asset.

“We’ve been detecting together for 40 years. It took him 20 years to get his axe head and it’s taken me 40 years to find mine,” said Mr Harrison.

Mr Lowcock, 72, found his palstave axe head in 1990 while the Addingham bypass was being built, while Mr Harrison discovered his earlier period flat axe head last year.

The axe heads are likely to have been crafted by a travelling bronze smiths, but the bronze itself, an alloy of tin and copper, may have been shipped into the British Isles in ingot form.

Between them, the two have also discovered a variety of artefacts, including a silver coin from the reign of Elizabeth I and a Roman brooch – and have yet to give up hope of further finds.

The two will happily head out with a metal detector on any land where they can obtain permission to search. Museum officer Gavin Edwards says the two axe heads, themselves likely to have been made hundreds of years apart, will fit in well with the display, showing how tools evolved through history.

As they are not broken, and because metal tools were not cheap in their day, Mr Edwards believes the axe heads were accidentally lost by their original owner – who would have considered the axe a valuable and essential tool of his work.

Mr Edwards said local artefacts were brought to the museum from time to time, often flint items or pieces of Roman pottery, but it was very unusual to have bronze items found.

“We’re absolutely delighted. They’ll be part of the collection on display and they’ll be preserved for future generations,” he said.