THE family of a Lowestoft fisherman who made a historically significant discovery had no idea of the importance of his find until they read about it in The Journal.

THE family of a Lowestoft fisherman who made a historically significant discovery had no idea of the importance of his find until they read about it in The Journal.

Pilgrim Edward Lockwood, known to his family as Ted, dredged up an 8in hunting tool 25 miles off the coast of Cromer in 1931.

Members of his family knew he had given some items to museums in the past but were thrilled when they read that this one small tool was of great significance.

The tool was a 14,000-year-old deer antler harpoon. Its discovery has since fascinated historians, who realised it had not been dropped into the sea but used by hunter-gatherers during the last ice age, proving that East Anglia was once an expanse of land linked to continental Europe.

A fortnight ago, we reported that a Norwegian TV crew was making a film on the origins of Norway and had travelled to Norwich Castle Museum to view the harpoon.

Jill Gorman spotted her grandfather's name in the article and quickly told her mother, Sylvia Harvey.

'My father found some things at sea and gave them to the museum, and really that was all I knew,' said Mrs Harvey, 76, from Oulton.

'It has been very exciting. Jill rang me and said: 'Mum, Granddad's in the paper.' I ran out and got The Journal and turned to Page 4 - I shan't forget that Friday.'

The Lockwood family fished out of the town for at least three generations until the decline of the fishing industry.

Mr Lockwood, who died in 1966, was born and bred in Lowestoft.

The harpoon is now on display in Gressenhall Farm & Workhouse, near Dereham, and family members plan to visit the museum as they have never seen it.

Mrs Gorman said she was delighted to read about the implications of her grandfather's find and the interest attached to it.

'It's been lovely. How we found it in the paper was lovely. It still amazes me how Granddad spotted it, because it isn't big, is it?

'He was a lovely man, a proper gentleman.'

As well as photos of Mr Lockwood's trawler Colinda, which was also the name of his house, the family has his original skipper's licence, made from pigskin. The antler was found in a part of the North Sea called Doggerland that has long since disappeared beneath the waves.