By springs do you mean suspension? Could be, was one of the things that i had initially thought of (although i think its from the rear not front) but the ride seems smooth enough and the part of the spring that i can see from looking in the wheel arches look to be still intact.

Yea sorry i have should provided that info. The piece of metal that i found was, was fairly heavy so at a guess id say iron or steel not aluminium. It was painted and fairly clean (which was what made me think that it was something i had driven over instead of being from the car itself). It was looked like it could have been part of a hook or coil, although only one end looked sheared off. About 1cm in diameter and maybe 5 or 6 cm in length, although considering i found two roughly similar pieces overall length would probably been about 10 cm, maybe it was some sort of clamp to hold something in place, although i always found it strange that it was painted and fairly clean.

Both springs on the front seem intact as far as i can see and the tyres seem fine too. Can i ask why you think the front and not the rear? I do hear a knocking kind of noise going over speed bumps etc but that does seem to be from the rear of the car. Could it be the exhaust i wonder? although that looks ok to my untrained eye aswell.