A HISTORY OF SURREY 



Roehampton, and in the bed of the Thames at Putney, Richmond and 

 Wandsworth. 



A rough ochreous flint implement of the palaeolithic age, found at 

 Clapham, is now in the Museum of Practical Geology, Jermyn Street. 



In the higher parts of the valley of the present Wandle, as also 

 in the dry valley of the ancient river, palaeolithic implements are 

 much more rare. The gravels which are so well developed in the 

 neighbourhood of Croydon, and which have been constantly searched 

 over for worked flints, have hitherto proved remarkably barren, and the 

 only specimen to be recorded is a rather well made ovoid implement of 

 the palaeolithic age found upon the surface of a ploughed field near 

 Croham Hurst, about one mile south of Croydon. The implement is 

 now in the collection of Mr. A. J. Hogg of South Norwood. 



In some of the upper parts of the chalk plateau numerous pieces 

 of fractured sub-angular and deeply stained flints have been found which 

 have been accepted by some authorities as implements roughly shaped 

 by the hand of man. Many antiquaries, however, are unable to accept 

 them as artificial forms. Their shape is largely, perhaps entirely, the 

 result of natural fractures and drift wear, and the general shapes of 

 the implements are so rude and inconvenient that, until some more 

 conclusive evidence is forthcoming, we prefer to consider them naturally 

 shaped flints. 



Examples of so-called ' eolithic implements ' have been found by 

 Mr. N. F. Roberts, F.G.S., at Warlingham and Tatsfield, and they have 

 also been recorded from other localities in Surrey. 



THE NEOLITHIC AGE 



In the course of the neolithic age the surface of the land had 

 assumed its present appearance. The river drift period as it had 

 formerly existed was closed, and the trees, plants and animals of the 

 neolithic age may be said to have been roughly the same as those we 

 now have, except that some species have been exterminated and others 

 introduced by the forces of civilization. There have also been some 

 changes on the sea coast by which the shore has been modified since the 

 first appearance of neolithic man, but these appear trivial when com- 

 pared with those of the palaeolithic age. 



In a district such as Surrey, abounding in chalk, whence flint could 

 readily be obtained, it would be remarkable if neolithic implements 

 were not well represented. As a matter of fact they are scattered upon 

 the surface of the ground throughout the county, and it would be diffi- 

 cult, perhaps impossible, to name a single parish in which they do not 

 occur. 



In the following account of the neolithic age in Surrey therefore 

 it is not proposed to pay any particular attention to the occurrence of 

 neolithic chips or flakes of flint unless those remains are specially note- 

 worthy. But whilst only the discovery of the more regularly formed 



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