The Palaeolithic Implements of Nidderdale, Yorkshire

Extract

The discovery of a large hand-axe of the Chelles period in the bed of the river Nidd at Goyden Pot Hole in 1922 has, after eight years careful work, established the fact by the results obtained, that Palæolithıc man lived in Yorkshire from the earliest times. This paper concerns only the upper part of Nidderdale, from Pateley Bridge to the source of the Nidd on Great Whernside. For the privilege of examining this large tract of country my thanks are due to the late Mr. T. E. Yorke, Col. C. J. Huskinson, Mr. H. A. Ramsden, Mr. W. Nicholson, and Mr. L. Mitchell.

As the nature of the country in which the implements have been found is so different from all other sites where implements of the same periods exist in England, a short description of it will not be out of place.

Nidderdale, like all the other Yorkshire dales, has been carved out by the glaciers of the Pleistocene period, and the course which the river follows is the same as that of the glaciers. The Nidd rises in Great Whernside at the height of over 2,000 ft., and by the time it reaches Pateley Bridge, some 15 miles from its source, it is only 383 ft. above sea. The fall of the hills corresponds more or less with this, the top of Great Whernside being 2,310 ft. O.D., and the moors at Pateley Bridge being 1,100-ft. to 1,050 ft. O.D. All down the dale on both sides many streams flow into the river: these have cut out deep narrow valleys, known locally as gills, and in doing so have exposed the lateral moraines which exist there.