139 



#tt tjre ^pal»alit|ic $lht Implements from 

 



jftfi^l^NOWLE is a detached hamlet in the parish of Little Bedwyn, 

 jpE^S! on the eastern borders of Savernake Forest. It is only a 

 short distance from the old turnpike road leading from Marlborough 

 to Hungerford, and about half-way between those towns. 



The Knoll, or Knowle (to which it owes its name) may be placed 

 at 450 feet above sea level and some 50 feet above the level of 

 the surrounding ground. About four miles in a south-westerly 

 direction are the high chalk downs terminating, at the eastern 

 end, in Martinsell Hill, and this range forms the northern 

 escarpment of the Pewsey Vale. The subsoil of Knowle is 

 Upper Chalk, and the gravel beds in which the implements 

 are found cover the top of the Knoll to a depth of 10 to 12 

 feet, thinning down as they follow the slope of the ground. 

 The eastern side only of these gravel beds has been excavated. 

 The gravels are mostly sharp, unrolled flints with an occasional 

 rolled pebble. They are more or less mixed with clay throughout. 

 As a rule they are closely compacted and require sharp blows from 

 the pickaxe to separate them. In one corner the gravels were 

 looser and mixed with a fine river silt — this being most probably 

 a later re-deposit. The flints show few traces of rolling but appear 

 to have been brought clown from a higher deposit, which covered 

 the chalk hills, mixed with sand and clay, and deposited in a mass. 

 Occasionally, towards the base of the gravels, the chalk is exposed, 

 and when this is so, it appears to have been ploughed up and re- 

 deposited with the gravel and clay. In places small beds of fine 

 quartzose sand occur. The flint implements are found throughout 

 the gravels, and there is no area or depth to which they can be 

 said to be confined. They present features of very great interest. 



By S. B. Dixon. 



