During 1926 and 1927 my researches under the auspices of the Percy Sladen Trustees were continued upon the Cromer coast of Norfolk, and a quantity of additional evidence relating to the archæological contents of the Forest Bed obtained. The remarkable spreads of flints exposed at low tide upon the foreshore at Cromer, East Runton, West Runton, and Sheringham were again examined, while the Estuarine Beds and the Upper Freshwater Bed of the Forest Bed Series received also some amount of attention.

I have to record my thanks to Messrs. J. P. T. Burchell, H. H. Halls, Guy Maynard, and J. E. Sainty for valuable help during these researches.

The further examination of the large spreads of flint present upon the foreshore at Cromer, East Runton, West Runton, and Sheringham has yielded many new and interesting facts regarding them. These spreads all rest upon the chalk, which along the coast-line between Cromer and Sheringham is exposed in places at low tide. Moreover, though differing in extent, they all present, to the casual observer, a very similar appearance, and are without doubt at the present time being subjected to closely similar physical conditions.

In remote times bleak and exposed sites in the east of the county of Durham were occupied by folk who made microlithic implements. On the top of Sheddon's Hill, near the Black Fell, Gateshead, these relics were fairly abundant among hundreds of pieces of flint collected; and examples have been found elsewhere in the district and on the coast.

Many of the Belgian Tardenois types are represented among these finds, the small trapezoid which has not yet been excavated on Sheddon's Hill was found on a site near by and a small round scraper on a coast site. The finding of these remains on Sheddon's Hill adds something to our information about the distribution of the Tardenois folk in Britain who probably as Capt. Buckley has suggested spread westwards from the Continent at a time when the North Sea did not exist.

In 1922 we recorded sixteen species of non-marine mollusca from Hoxne but of these only eight were known from extant examples, the remainder being listed on the authority of either Prof. Prestwich, or the late Clement Reid, and we noted that two horizons were present, Early Pleistocene and Late Pleistocene (Proc. Geol. Assoc, Vol. XXXIII (1922), pp. 137–165.) Through the kindness of Prof. P. G. H. Boswell and Mr. J. Reid Moir samples of peaty earth containing shells from Hoxne were submitted to us for examination. There came from Section 4, layer G (see Proc. Prehistoric Soc., East Anglia, Vol. V (1926), p. 145) and we are greatly indebted to these gentlemen for their kindness.

The late W. G. Clarke recorded the occurrence of palæolithic implements in thirty Norfolk parishes, a fact which suggests that the county is exceptionally rich in implementiferous gravels. On detailed examination of the records it is seen that the great mass of the finds lies in two widely separated districts. In the extreme south-west the valleys of the Thet and Little Ouse have long been famous among collectors, and large numbers of specimens were obtained at a time when the making of the Fenland roads caused a demand for the gravel of the district; the fine collections in the Norwich and Thetford Museums testify to the number and beauty of the specimens obtained there. In more recent years the centre of interest has shifted to the north-east, where the hopes, first raised by the discovery by Mr. A. C. Savin of a fine hand axe (Geology of the Country Around Cromer, p. 130) in 1878, have at last been fulfilled by Mr. Reid Moir's recognition of a Chellian workshop on the foreshore at Cromer (“The Great Flint Implements of Cromer,” Harrison, Ipswich, and Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute, LI., 1921, p. 385–418). Apart from these finds, isolated discoveries of importance have been made from time to time, notably the beautiful implement found by Mr. W. R. R. Spelman on the beach at Eccles (P.S.E.A. II., I., p. 156), the Palling platessiform implement discovered by Mr. Randall Johnson, the Chellian side chopper from the Till at Sidestrand by the writer, and Acheulean hand axes from Runton cliff gravels by Mr. G. Maynard. These have all been carefully described and figured by Mr. J. Reid Moir (“Man,” April 1926; J.R.A.I. LI., p. 399; Antiquaries' Journal, April 1923, and P.S.E.A., IV., 1., p. 126; “Nature,” Aug. 16, 1924). A few miles inland at Gresham, the patient and persistent work of Mr. J. Cox has produced a number of finds of the first importance, especially those described and figured in the Proceedings (P.S.E.A. I., III., p. 380, Plate XCVIII; III., II., p. 317, Fig. 78; I., I., p. 118, and I., II., p. 236). Apart from these two border districts, the records refer mainly to isolated specimens, mostly surface finds. Dr. C. B. Plowright reports implements from a pit at Tottenhill, near King's Lynn (P.S.E. A. I., I., p. 118), whilst a fine hand axe of La Micoque type was found by a schoolboy at Salhouse.

In his Presidential Address to the Prehistoric Society of East Anglia in 1916, Proc., Vol. II., Pt. II., p. 279, Dr. A. E. Peake described a flint implement obtained from Floor 16 as a hollow-end scraper; remarking that Dr. Sturge had “a number of similar implements found on the surface.” Two views of the implement are, fortunately, given; whereby it can be seen that the hollow at the supposed scraping end is brought to an acute edge by chipping on both faces, and, therefore, was not used in hollow-scraping. The work is identical with that on a barbed but stemless arrowhead, at the hollow base thereof; fitting it for mounting in a shaft. The suggestion is that this is an arrowhead or lancehead.

In 1920 my daughter Morwenna picked out from Floor 75 the flint shown in Fig. 1. This, also, is trimmed at the base, from each face; precisely after the manner of numbers of accepted arrowheads, and in such fashion as to produce an edge which would facilitate hafting. The remainder of the secondary chipping is on both sides of the point, and all down one side of the weapon. The other side needed no trimming; it is acute and sharp and would easily do its share of piercing.

This has already been described in Vol. IV, Pt. II, p. 165–176, and in Vol. V, Part I, p. 56–61. During the past year the excavation has been continued with the constant assistance of Mr. E. H. Barclay and Mr. H. H. Halls, and we feel that now the most prolific portion of the site has been thoroughly examined. The most welcome finds have been three implements which Dr. Breuil characterised as “axe-burins” (Figs. 1, 2), for the very interesting and puzzling specimen obtained last year by Mr. Barclay had been described either as an axe or a “gros burin” (Vol. V, Pt. I, p. 58). In its size and general appearance it differed much from the usual Kelling specimens, and these new finds, smaller in size and obviously belonging in technique to the main industry, have served to establish the type as characteristic of the site. A number of burins of cave types (Figs. 3, 4) have also been obtained, but, though careful search has been made for the typical Tardenoisian micro-burins, not a single example has been observed.

By the courtesy of Messrs. Sainty and Halls I was enabled to pay visits to the most interesting palæolithic site at Whitlingham, of which Mr. Sainty has given an account in the foregoing paper.

In the interval between my first and second visits, the cost of excavation had been assisted by a grant from the Sladen Fund. The wonderful series of implements obtained, certainly unique for Britain and possibly for Western Europe, and the interesting geological considerations which flow from the facts recorded, seem to me to be ample justification for the generous action of the Sladen Trustees.

In the preceding paper Mr. Sainty has given a clear and succinct account of the implementiferous beds and their accompanying deposits. Although his description of the geological features is, in my opinion, excellent, I have acceded to his request (unnecessary as it may seem) to add some geological notes on the deposits.

This site lies in the parish of Little Somborne, Hants, to the west of Turnpike Copse and just south of the Stockbridge-Winchester road. The ground rises steeply from the road to form a ridge about 300 O.D. and then gradually sinks towards Fox Heath Copse. Just below the crest of this ridge, the plough brings to the surface many large blocks of flint where a stratum outcrops. These blocks are the raw material from which the tools were made and the picks found were probably used to extract them. Large rough flakes are very numerous. Many of them show trimmed butts. This site extends for about 2 acres, and in this area are found picks, choppers, large cores, hammer stones, anvil stones, borers, end scrapers, and rarely a large horseshoe scraper, but no arrow heads or polished axes. The tools are patinated a blue-white or blue-grey; but the quality of the flint is so bad, there are so many quartz, chertz and calcedonic inclusions, that the patination is often patchy and unequal and sometimes varies in colour in different parts of the same flake scar. There is not much lustre. Iron staining and at times iron incrustation, found chiefly on the aretes, is very marked and there are numerous quicksilver spots of polish. The edges of these tools are sharp and show very little signs of use. What signs there are may be due to accidental damage by the plough.

Surface finds are seldom hailed by the student of prehistory with enthusiasm, and it must be confessed that as dating material such finds prove themselves unreliable. There are however, certain exceptions to this general rule, and the finds I am relating below, fall, I submit, under this last category. In point of fact when flakes, implements, cores and calcined flint are yearly brought to the surface in great quantities by the plough over one small area, the more formal objections to surface finds largely disappear.

In the Proceedings of this Society (Vol. V, pt. 1, pp. 73–8) I described an epi-palæolithic factory site at Lower Halstow, Kent, situated beneath an accumulation of marsh deposits. In addition I recorded the discovery of Early Iron Age and Roman pottery in the immediate neighbourhood made under similar circumstances. In the course of the above paper I endeavoured to correlate the facts at my disposal so as to afford a general appreciation of the results obtained from the first year's work upon the site. Upon resuming operations in the following year I immediately put to the test the deductions and facts which I had been working upon with the result that one deduction and one fact needed amendment. In my first report I stated that the peat overlying the stone-age factory site represented the Roman land-surface. Though, unquestionably, this peat did, in places, constitute the land-surface in Roman times, it was not the general rule, since its proper stratigraphical position occurs some 2-ft. 6-in. below the horizon of the Early Iron Age occupation level. Here and there, however, this intervening 2-ft. 6-in. of marsh clay deposits had become eroded away with the result that, in these instances, the Roman invaders were living upon a considerably earlier land-surface.

During the year 1924 I made some observations on the North Kent coast between Swalecliffe and Reculver for the purpose of locating the cultural horizon of the Thames pick, an implement which has been found in plenty upon the beach and sea floor in that locality, but which has not yet been indisputably classified by archæologists.

The finds made up to November, 1924, were shown by me to the Prehistoric Society of East Anglia, but the paper must be considered unsatisfactory since the pivot on which any conclusions from those finds had to turn was the date of the prehistoric pottery. On this question I found there were differences of opinion. On the one hand I was advised that the pottery was of the Early Iron Age, on the other that it was Neolithic. Having made a careful study of all the comparative evidence I could trace, I found myself unable to disregard either opinion. The apparent association of flint implements with the pottery, led me to adopt a Neolithic date, as at the time I had no evidence that Iron Age Man fashioned flint implements.

Through the generosity of the Trustees of the Percy Sladen Fund I have been enabled to continue the investigation of the factory site, the preliminary examination of which was reported in the Proceedings of this Society last year. The “floor” there described was situated on the right bank of the “Sunk Channel” of the River Medway, at a point one mile north of the Church at Lower Halstow. It rested, in part, upon the surface of the London Clay, and, in part, upon the surface of an alluvium which is older than the gravels of the 10-ft. terrace. The covering deposits, consisting of rainwash, peats, and marsh clays, amounted to a thickness of just over six feet.

In area the “floor” occupied some 100 feet by 60 feet and comprised a series of circular patches 3 feet to 4 feet wide and 3 ins. to 4 ins. deep, sunk below the surface of the London Clay. The patches consisted of blackened earth and calcined flints (see Plate I., fig. 2). The flint implements, together with the waste and raw material, occurred more numerously in these patches.

This year the hearths of a further factory site revealed themselves at a point ¼ of a mile north of the Church. They rested upon the surface of the London Clay and were covered by strata, similar both in composition and sequence to those of the northern site.

I am exhibiting a number of flakes and implements, which appear to be of Le Moustier date, from Acton on the Taplow Terrace, and West Drayton and Iver on the Boyn Hill Terrace.

The Acton specimens are from the immediate vicinity of the working floor discovered by the late Mr. Allen Brown some forty years ago. During recent excavations in Creffield Road, I picked out of the brick-earth, thrown up from a depth of 4 to 6½ feet, seventy humanly struck flints. Forty-six are unpatinated, fresh-looking and unabraded, twenty have a bluey-white patination, amongst which are several with slightly dulled edges, and four are light-ochreous. The freshness of the cortex on several of the unpatinated flints suggests that some of the raw material was derived directly from the chalk. The majority are simple flakes and spalls. The remainder consists of eighteen small Levallois flakes, varying in size from 2 by 1½ to 3½ by 2¼ inches, one small tortoise core, a small flattish core with flaking on one face at right angles to that on the other, a flint pebble which has been used as a hammerstone, one small point and two exceptional pieces. One of these is a fairly typical graver (bee de flûte) with bluey-white patination (Fig. 1); the other may be described as a busked graver, it is made from a thickish external flake and is unpatinated (Fig. 2). A few of the flakes shew slight signs of use.

From the Marine Parade, Tankerton, Whitstable, looking East, one obtains a capital view of Tankerton Bay, Swalecliffe, in which my discoveries have been made which are to form the subject matter of this paper. The grassy cliff at Priest and Sow corner at the end of the road stands at 55 O.D. This height gradually declining round the arc of the bay, to die out entirely in the Long Rock occupying the middle distance and through which the Swalecliffe Brook discharges into the sea. Just beyond, a little to the right, are the disused Swalecliffe Brick Works, with Stud Hill and Hampton lying further back. To the left and edging the horizon, Herne Bay Pier is clearly discernable. The accompanying copy of (Plate I.) the 25-in. Ordnance map of this Tankerton Bay section gives the exact position of the 650 yards from the Parish Boundary Stone eastwards indicated thereon with a X in which are found the gravels and brick-earths which have proved so rich in archaeological treasure trove. The whole of this south-easterly directioned well-drained gently sloping ground, from the Priest and Sow corner to the Swalecliffe brook, forms an ideal camping site. Last April a paper was read by me before the Geological Association, at University College, London, entitled “An Examination of the Contents of the Brick Earths and Gravels of Tankerton Bay, Swalecliffe, Kent,” in which the geological aspect of this section was fairly exhaustively treated, so that in this particular it will be unnecessary for me to do more than give a brief summary of the results of that examination as to the relative age and stratigraphical sequence of the Drift material found here overlying the London Clay.

This axe and chisel of flint were found together on the Round Course, Newmarket Heath, by a workman “bushgating” on the Course. They are in the possession of Dr. Chas. Lucas, of Burwell, Cambs.

Mr. R. A. Smith (Hoards of Neolithic Celts, Archæologia 71, p. 113) pleads for the publication of authentic associated finds of surface stone implements in order to provide material for determining the chronological sequence of types. The axe (l. 4.3-in.) and chisel (l. 4.7-in) figured, merit record in this connection. Both are of chipped flint, with the cutting edges ground, and with a slight amount of grinding elsewhere, done to remove excrescences. The technique seems to be exactly the same in each case. The patination is similar; the chisel milky white, with darker patches, the axe creamy white.

It is more than twenty years since my father, Mr. S. K. Turner discovered evidence of the presence of man in the Luton valley. Stimulated by his early successes he was led to continue his search, and the result of his labours, coupled, in more recent years with my own, has been that the collections of museums both at home and abroad have been enriched.

The old manor of Waddon is part of the Parish of Croydon and lies to the south west of the Parish Church of that town. Here at the head of the Wandle River there are many evidences of a wide spread population in prehistoric times and the fields on the lower slopes of the North Downs which steadily rise from Waddon Station towards Purley are littered with flakes and have yielded many implements.

The particular site to which I draw the attention of the Society, and indicate as the Cedars Estate, is easily reached by the bridle path running westward by Waddon Mill on the banks of the river, and the section under discussion, is the north east corner of the plot marked as Brandy Bottle Hill on the six inch Ordnance Survey. A hillock of Thanet sand here rises and extends eastward over the next field, the top of which is some 140 feet above sea level and makes a vantage spot with a good look out, over the wide stretches of the level plain running north from the present course of the Wandle river, in early times no doubt a stretch of marshland. It is still called Waddon Marsh.

During the seasons 1926-8 excavations have been undertaken in this cavern by a party of members of the Torquay Natural History Society, co-operating with a sub-committee of Section H of the British Association. A trench 60 feet long has been carried along the northern wall of the chambers known as the Vestibule and the N.E. Gallery so as to pass directly beneath the original position of the Black Band, a prehistoric hearth of very late Magdalenian age discovered in 1866 by William Pengelly. The Black Band adhered to the base of the upper or Granular Stalagmite, and at a depth of 4 feet lower in the Cave-earth, Pengelly had collected a couple of rostrate scrapers, an end-scraper with opposed point, and a bone pin, identified by Miss Garrod in 1926 as belonging to an industry of Middle Aurignacian type.

In the northern part of Ipswich, between the Henley and the Norwich Roads, is situated the brickfield of Messrs. A. Bolton & Co., Ltd., where the Eocene London Clay is excavated, and manufactured into red bricks. The brickfield lies in a small and now streamless valley which has been found to be extraordinarily rich in vestiges of the past races of East Anglia. It has been my privilege to examine and conduct excavations in this valley, for many years past, and a great deal is now known about its geological and archæological history. The valley itself, though so near to the town of Ipswich, presents on its southern side, much beauty and wildness, and is the home of many interesting and beautiful birds. It begins as a slight depression in the plateau to the east of the Henley Road, and gradually deepening, and developing a somewhat sinuous course, joins the main valley of the River Gipping about a mile to the westward. The valley is typical of many such in Suffolk, and owes its initial formation to the melting of the glacier that laid down the Upper Boulder Clay of East Anglia. The water set free during this process would naturally find its way into the main drainage valley close by, and there is evidence, in the form of the valley under consideration, that it did this with considerable rapidity.