A NORTH Wales housewife found a bronze age knife crafted 4,500 years ago while digging in her vegetable patch. Marylyn Sheldon knew she had discovered something special after unearthing the flint blade at her Llanarmon-yn-Iâl home, in Denbighshire. On Wednesday experts at the National Museum of Wales, Cardiff, confirmed it was a bronze aged blade forged around 2,500BC. "I was digging in my vegetable patch in April last year to put broad beans in," she said. "I knew it was a worked flint blade as soon as I saw it. I was very excited by the find. "I left it lying around for a while. There was a local conservation meeting in September and there was an archeologist there. He was interested in it." Mrs Sheldon, who is in her 50s, contacted Denbighshire council and the authority's countryside service archeologist Fiona Gail was called in. "She took photos. Later on I also found some flint chippings while digging in the garden. "Fiona sent all the pictures off to Cardiff," Mrs Sheldon said. "Eventually I got to the museum on Thursday and they identified it as a a flint knife dating from the bronze age which could have been used as a scraper. "My family didn't seem interested. They just let me get on with it. But it is has caused a lot of excitement in the village." Mrs Sheldon says she may donate the knife to a local museum. The small village of Llanarmon-yn-Iâl is surrounded by ancient barrows and mounds. Mrs Gale said: "It is an interesting find and provides more information about the area. I think there were some other finds from a nearby cave in the village in the early years of the 20th century." It is not the first time Mrs Sheldon has found something unexpected in her garden. In October 2001 she hit the headlines when an exotic bird an African golden backed weaver paid her garden an unscheduled visit, having been blown off course. stevebagnall@dailypost.co.uk | 
