Palæolithic Industries from the Great Ouse Gravels at and Near St. Neots

Extract

The market town of St. Neots is situated a mile or so off the Great North Road, and on the right bank of the Great Ouse just where it forms the boundary between Huntingdonshire and Bedfordshire. It lies at an average height of 55 feet above O.D.

For some years I have visited the pits which are worked in the low level gravels in and near this town and have been successful in obtaining from them a number of Palæolithic implements and flakes, as well as mammalian remains. Nearly all the implements and flakes were found by myself on heaps of gravel recently raised from the pits, but a few, together with all the bones, were found by the workmen, who in some cases were able to give me the level of derivation.

The first pit to be considered is in the town of St. Neots, and is situated in the grounds of Hall Place, Cambridge Street, about 150 yards east of the Vicarage. It is not very extensively worked and gravel is dug to a depth of 9 feet. The surface, which is approximately 50 feet above O.D., is less than ten feet above the level of the river. I have only one definite implement from this site (Plate II., fig. c), which I found on a heap of gravel on the edge of the pit. Flakes, however, number ten. They are mostly rather thick and coarse, and five show some crust. Most of them have little patination except a faint bluish stain near the crust. One is of a dark honey colour, and another has an ochreous patination. Several of these might have been used as scrapers, and four seem to have been struck from a prepared platform. Red Deer, Rhinocerus tichorhinus and Bos or Bison have been discovered in this pit.