ENGLAND: THE OTHER WITHIN

Canon Greenwell and Grimes Graves, Norfolk

In his paper 'On the opening of Grime's Graves in Norfolk', published by the Journal of the Ethnological Society of London [pages 419-439, vol 2. no. 4 1870], Canon Greenwell gives an insight into the way that archaeologists, like Pitt Rivers viewed this site in 1868-1870.

Greenwell opens the article by saying:

The small town of Brandon, in the county of Suffolk is, with one exception, the only place in England where the manufacture of gun-flints is still maintained. This is principally due to the abundance of lint, of a superior quality, which the Upper Chalk of the neighbouring district supplies. The town is situated on the River Ouse, there forming the boundary between the counties of Norfolk and Suffolk; and the locality has been, in various ages, the abode of people who have used flint extensively, though for very different purposes. ... These beds, worked for road materials at Thetford, Downham, Broomhill and Brandon Fields, have afforded an almost endless store of palaeolithic implements, as the cases of many a museum bear witness. [Greenwell, 1870: 419-20]

It is clear that Pitt Rivers was not unusual in collecting many surface finds in the area:

... implements of lint, most of them belonging to the neolithic age, are found scattered over the surface of the ground throughout the whole of the locality in question. There are some particular sites, however, where such articles, together with large numbers of chippings and cores of flint, imperfects and broken implements and the tools with which they were fabricated are discovered in still greater profusion. One of these is situated about three miles N.E. of Brandon, and one mile north of the River Ouse, at a place called Grime's Graves, in the parish of Weeting and county of Norfolk. It is evident from the quantity of refuse pieces of flint, and the numerous fabricating-tools still remaining at the spot, that it was the place where a manufactory of flint implements had been carried on ... [Greenwell, 1870: 420]

Like Pitt Rivers, Greenwell obviously did not engage in the heavy digging on his sites, but engaged workmen to undertake the hard work. He also does not usually name them, but he does give this account, in the paper, of the links between his workmen and the flintworkers of prehistoric times:

A very striking occurrence in connexion with the working out of the flint was met with at the end of the first gallery, 20 feet 8 inches from its mouth. The roof had given way about the middle of the gallery, and blocked up the whole width of it to the roof. On removing this, and when the end came in view, it was seen that the flint had been worked out in three places at the end ... in front of two of these hollows were laid two icks, the handle of each towards the mouth of the gallery, the tines pointing towards each other, showing, in all probability, that they had been used respectively by a right- and a left-handed man. The day's work over, the men had laid down each his tool, ready for the next day's work; meanwhile the roof had fallen in, and the picks had never been recovered. I learnt from the workmen that it would not have been safe to excavate further in that direction, the chalk at the point being broken up by cracks so as to prevent the roof from standing firm. It was a most impressive sight, and one never to be forgotten, to look, after a lapse, it may be, of 3000 years, upon a piece of work unfinished, with the tools of the workmen still lying wher they had been placed so many centuries ago. ... These two picks, as was the case with many of those found elsewhere, had upon them an incrustation of chalk, the surface of which bore the impression of the workmen's fingers, the print of the skin being most apparent. [Greenwell, 1870: 427]

It is clear from the discussion after the paper was read that many people visited Canon Greenwell's excavations including John Wickham Flower. Pitt Rivers was also present and he referred the listeners to the camp at Cissbury, 'which had been explored by the speaker'. [Greenwell, 1870: 439] He also referred to his work on a pit near Broadstairs but did not think either of these similar to Grimes Graves in particular ways. However, he referred to 'other pits, commonly known as Dane's HOles, in parts of Kent more closely resembling those described in the paper'[East Tilbury, Crayford, Dartford and Chislehurst] [Greenwell, 1870: 439]

No doubt these pits were constructed for the same object as those at Grime's Graves, the careful excavation and description of which by Canon Greenwell, [Pitt Rivers] thought, would probably serve as an impulse to prehistorians to examine other pits carefully, which he trusted might lead to important results. [Greenwell, 1870: 439]

 

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