| Mesolithic finds at
Tatton |
| Cheshire's Prehistoric
Highway |
A staggering 900 flints were recovered in all, about 600 from the
dig site and 300 from the mere edge, and these included microliths,
scrapers, obliquely blunted points, flint cores, awls, a possible
sandstone rubber, an axe sharpener and a saw. All were identified
as typical of the early Mesolithic or Middle Stone Age period, probably
between 10000 BC and 8000 BC, and the flint used was of southern English
origin which accords well with the recent Hoxnian finds at Millington,
Knutsford and Tatton also common in southern England. Further finds
of Mesolithic flint tools have been made at Mere and Tatton by myself
and other archaeologists engaged in field walking and a picture of
a prehistoric 'highway' is beginning to emerge along the north Cheshire
ridge which runs east from Warrington to Tatton where it turns south
through Knutsford.
|
Archaeology
"For
many centuries after Britain became an island the untamed forest was
king. Its moist and mossy floor was hidden from heaven's eye by a
close drawn curtain woven of innumerable tree tops, which shivered
in the breezes of summer dawn and broke into wild music of millions
upon millions of wakening birds; the concert was prolonged from bough
to bough with scarcely a break for hundreds of miles over hill and
plain and mountain, unheard by man save where, at rarest intervals,
a troop of skin clad hunters, stone axe in hand, moved furtively over
the ground beneath." From Trevelyan's 'History Of England Part 1'.
In
our area and those surrounding the Pennine foothills it has been established
through archaeological endeavour that the Stone Age 'Sauveterre Culture'
(which takes its name from the distinctive settlement site at Perigord
in France) reached the Mersey Valley between 7600 and 6800 years ago
(5700 - 4900 BC). These very early settlers hunted in local forests
which were comprised mainly of Oak with Wych Elm, English Lime and
Hazel and completely surrounded the Mersey valley at that time. Like
their Hoxnian forefathers they preferred to settle in sandy places
by water during the summer as they had no permanent 'houses' (unless
a cave was available nearby for convenient use). The winding, sandy
curves of the Mersey with its fertile flood plains and wooded hillsides
would have provided a perfect settlement area for these first Stone
Age immigrants from France.