A HISTORY OF NOTTINGHAMSHIRE 



man which is more prevalent towards the west both of England and 

 Ireland, or in other words the Iberian inhabitants of these isles, are 

 descended from the neolithic men. The fusion of types in the county 

 is almost complete, but there are still visible traces of the darker race. 

 Hence we may be permitted to see in the scanty neolithic remains of 

 the county a legacy from the remote forefathers of some of the present 

 inhabitants. 



The advance that we have already traced in the manufacture of his 

 tools by palaeolithic man was continued in the period which we are now 

 considering. The roughly sharpened flakes of flint which were found at 

 Creswell are succeeded by well-wrought arrow-heads and knives. No 

 sure line can be drawn between the late Stone Age and the age of 

 bronze. And, indeed, most of the finer stone implements of the county 

 have been found in the neighbourhood of Celtic burial grounds, and in 

 conjunction with bronze objects. 



The more important neolithic implements found in Nottingham- 

 shire include chipped flint arrow-heads found at Gunthorpe ; and ground 

 or polished flint celts from Averham, Car Colston, Carlton, and Notting- 

 ham. At Bestwood, North Clifton, Scarthing Moor, and Wiverton 

 neolithic implements have also been found. 



The fluted and perforated axe-head found at the Sand Hills, 

 Wollaton, and the fragment of another perforated axe-head, including its 

 cutting end found at Beeston, are both probably more nearly related to 

 the age of bronze than that of stone. The same may be said of the 

 specimen of holed axe-head dredged from the bed of the Trent near 

 Barton and the holed stone hammer-head from Thrumpton. 



Some human remains were found at South Muskham along with 

 rough fragments of earthenware and reindeer bones. These belong 

 probably to a time preceding the coming of the Celtic invaders, that is 

 to the age which we are now considering. But when stone objects are 

 found along with bronze objects, we have already passed into another 

 stage of civilization. For example, Bateman found a flint spear-head 

 along with articles of bronze at Gotham. 1 And the ' well-finished celt of 

 polished stone' which was found at Collingham in 1867 seems to have 

 belonged to a British burial ground. 2 



There are one or two striking natural objects in the county which 

 may be associated with some reason with the close of the Stone Age. 

 This time was characterized, as we have seen, by the erection or use of 

 huge stones, and reached its culmination in Stonehenge. There is some 

 reason to think that the Hemlock Stone on Stapleford Hill, and the 

 Druid Stones of Blidworth, were centres of religious interest even in 

 neolithic times. 



The Hemlock Stone is a pillar of sandstone which, owing to the 

 insoluble nature of the cementing material, barium sulphate, has resisted 

 the weather to a greater degree than the surrounding rock, and so 

 has, by degrees, been left standing out amid the slow decay of the rest 



1 Vestiges, 104. ' Wake, CoKngham, 43. 



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