A HISTORY OF SUFFOLK 



to on one or two subsequent occasions,' was practically lost sight of for 

 upwards of sixty years. Attention had then been more prominently 

 drawn to the occurrence of worked flints in the Somme valley, and Sir 

 John Evans recalled to notice the flint implements at Hoxne. The 

 researches made by him and Sir Joseph Prestwich with regard to the 

 relation of the implement-bearing deposits to the Boulder Clay have 

 been confirmed by Mr. C. Reid, who (as before mentioned) has proved 

 that the Paleolithic deposits at Hoxne overlie the Boulder Clay, and are 

 separated from it by layers yielding remains first of temperate and after- 

 wards of arctic plants. 



In 1862 Henry Prigg of Bury St. Edmunds (who subsequently 

 changed his name to Trigg) found flint implements in the valley gravel 

 and afterwards in a black peaty layer at the base of loam or valley 

 brickearth at that locality. Later on he found an imperfect fragment of 

 a human skull in loam at Westley near Bury St. Edmunds ; but the 

 specimen has since been destroyed.^ 



In the valley of the Little Ouse flint implements were discovered 

 also in 1862, the first example being obtained at Santon on the Norfolk 

 side,' and many have since been found. In this neighbourhood, as 

 remarked by Mr. S. B. J. Skertchly, ' from Paleolithic times to the 

 present day the vicinity of Brandon has been one of the great emporia 

 for flint ' ; but, as before mentioned, the evidence which he brought 

 forward of implements beneath the Boulder Clay in the neighbourhood 

 of Brandon and Mildenhall has not been deemed satisfactory. His early 

 Palaeolithic stage was represented by the Brandon Beds (see p. 19). 

 These he regarded as older than the Boulder Clay, which in his opinion 

 was intruded into and beneath these loamy beds. He recognized them 

 at Mildenhall, Bury St. Edmunds, West Stow and Culford ; * but the 

 deposits may not be all of one age. 



Paleolithic implements occur in certain gravels which are newer 

 than the Boulder Clay, and which cap the hills about 70 to 120 feet 

 above the present Little Ouse river. They have been found at Brandon 

 Field or Gravel Hill, two miles south-west of Brandon, at Lakenheath 

 Hill, and Portway or Marroway (Mareway) Hill east of Eriswell. The 

 gravels are regarded as old valley deposits, and they probably represent 

 lines of drainage independent of the modern courses of streams. At 

 present they must be regarded as the oldest Paleolithic deposits. With 

 them however may be included the beds at Hoxne, and certain deposits 

 lately discovered near Ipswich by Miss N. F. Layard.^ 



According to Mr. S. H. Warren the higher gravels of the Little 

 Ouse and Lark, at Santon Downham and High Lodge near Mildenhall, 

 yield implements of a newer type than those of the earlier drainage 



1 R. C. Taylor, ' Geology of East Norfolk' (1827), pp. 14, 27. 



- H. Prigg, Rep. Brit. Assoc, for 1866, sections p. 50 ; Joun. Anthrop. Inst. xiv. 51 ; and Proc. 

 Norwich Geo!. Soc. i. 163 ; E. T. Newton, Proc. Geol. Assoc, xv. 257. 

 ^ J. W. Flower, ^mt. Journ. Geol. Soc. xxiii. 45, xxv. 449. 

 * 'Manufacture of Gun Flints,' Geol. Survey (1879), p. 65. 

 ' Nature, May 22, 1902, p. 77. 



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