EARLY MAN 



On the Lickey Hills, at Tutnall near Tardebigge, on the east side 

 of the range on the highlands overlooking the Avon and Severn, consider- 

 able numbers of flint implements have from time to time been found, 

 mostly on some fields there known as 'Nine Lands,' 'Orgates,' 'Long 

 Close' and 'Lone Fields,' A collection of these implements was exhibited 

 to the Society of Antiquaries in March, 1897. It consisted of ' a 

 rough axehead, a bored water-worn pebble, two spindle wheels, part 

 of a whetstone, a rubber, a sling-stone, a fragment of a broken axehead 

 with partly bored hole for its reverse, and a number of flake-borers, 

 scrapers and arrowheads, all of flint.' ^ On the opposite side of the 

 Severn estuary, on the Malvern Hills, but the precise spots are not 

 known, a number of flakes have been found. These are now in the 

 Victoria Museum at Worcester, In the south, on Bredon Hill, flint 

 flakes have also occurred from time to time, but here again unfortu- 

 nately the precise localities are unknown. These flakes also are in 

 the Worcester Museum, 



The highlands, overlooking the rich pastures of the plains, are the 

 places where most probably the NeoHthic men settled. Had the finds 

 been only at one of the places they would not have possessed any great 

 importance, but occurring as they do all round the estuary they strongly 

 support the view that the south part of the county was settled by Neo- 

 lithic men. Taken separately the implements prove little or nothing ; 

 indeed it may be doubted whether some of them do not belong to a later 

 period, which might prove that the same localities were occupied by 

 successive races. But taken in conjunction with all the places where they 

 have been found, and the fact that in the low ground below other Neo- 

 lithic implements have been discovered, they go far to establish even if 

 they do not prove the presence of Neolithic man in Worcestershire. In 

 the Avon valley a stone axe was unearthed, and other Neolithic imple- 

 ments have been found on Bevington Waste, on the borders of Worces- 

 tershire and Warwickshire, and lower down the Avon valley at OfFenham, 

 Sedgeberrow and DefFord. In the Severn valley a basalt double-edged 

 celt was found in the drift near Bewdley, and in the Teme valley stone 

 implements have been found at Lindridge and at Broadwas. 



The cumulative testimony of these finds therefore tends to prove 

 that on the highlands there were settlements, that the lowlands were 

 traversed by the settlers, who one and all, whether on the highlands or 

 in the valleys, used stone implements. These stone implements are recog- 

 nized as belonging to the Neolithic period. Therefore it seems to be 

 established that Worcestershire during the whole or some part of the 

 Neolithic period was a district inhabited by Neolithic men. 



This is all that can be said with any certainty. To what extent 

 the county was populated, for what period, whether permanently or only 

 temporarily, as the tribes wandered from district to district, on these 

 points there is no evidence. It is quite possible that further research may 



1 Proceedings Society of Antiquaries, xvi. 319. 

 181 



