Flint Implements from the Cromer Forest Bed

Abstract

THE discovery to which this letter relates was made towards the end of September of last year. For the past eighteen months I have spent a considerable amount of time investigating the deposits forming the cliffs of the north-east coast of Norfolk, and have already published a paper dealing with certain humanly fashioned flints found at, and in the neighbourhood of, Mundesley (Proc. Prehis. Soc. E. Anglia, vol. iii., part ii., pp. 219–43). I devoted my attention during last year to the district of Cromer, and have now to record the discovery of a flint-workshop site, which, in my opinion, is referable to the lowermost division of the Pliocene Forest Bed series. As is well known, the Cromer Forest Bed is generally regarded as of Newer Pliocene age, and was laid down after the deposition of the marine Weybourn Crag (latest beds of the Norwich Crag), and before the commencement of the great Pleistocene glaciations. In the Geological Survey memoir, “The Pliocene Deposits of Britain,” Mr. Clement Reid states: “Where most complete, the ‘Forest Bed’ consists of three divisions—an Upper and a Lower Fresh-water Bed and an intermediate estuarine deposit.” In many places along the coast the upper portion of the Cromer Forest Bed series can be seen in section towards the base of the cliff, but the lower part, being covered by beach material, can seldom be observed except when a succession of northwesterly gales has caused the sea to scour away the sand and shingle. It is now, however, possible at low Water to examine the basal portion of the Cromer Forest Bed deposits when the receding tide has laid bare certain areas which only a comparatively short time ago were covered by great masses of Glacial and other strata in the then existing cliff. The site at Cromer where the humanly fashioned flints dealt with in this letter were found covers an area of foreshore about 150 yards long by 100 yards wide, and is almost opposite the north-western termination of the sea-wall at that place.