Norfolk Heritage Explorer

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A significant number of Palaeolithic worked flints were recovered during building work undertaken at this site during the late 1920s. A number of the objects found survive, the majority being held by the Norwich Castle Museum.

THE REPORTED DISCOVERIES

1927. Stray Find.
In June 1927 H. H. Halls identified Palaeolithic flint flakes in gravel making up a footpath beside a railway line. This gravel was traced back to the Messrs. Colman's Carrow Works site, where extensive building work was being undertaken (S1). After Halls traced his finds back to Carrow Works it was arranged for him to visit the site and examined the sections exposed. Although no material was recovered in situ he was able to instruct the workmen on what to look out for. During regular subsequent visits to the site Halls collected a number of flakes and fragments of bone, although the latter were too decayed for identification (S1).

These discoveries were reported at a meeting of the Prehistoric Society of East Anglia in December 1927, where H. H. Halls described the artefacts as being "...in the terrace gravels of the Wensum" (S2). These were compared to material recently recovered at Whitlingham (NHER 9663).

1928. Stray Find.
The first handaxe was recovered at the site by Rev. T. C. Rae in early 1928. Subsequent discoveries included additional handaxes, various flakes and flake implements and the fragmentary remains of a mammoth tusk and a mammoth tooth. These finds were first reported at a meeting of the Prehistoric Society of East Anglia, where Halls announced "…the very important discovery of mammoth tusks and teeth in association with Palaeolithic implements of St. Acheul-Le Moustier type in the Carrow gravels" (S3). Some "fine hand-axes" from the site were exhibited at this time.

A fuller account of the discoveries made at Carrow Works is given in (S1). Most of the artefacts appear to have been recovered at a depth of approximately 8m, from a deposit described as consisting of coarse gravel, "...4ft in thickness, containing many quartzite pebbles, capped by stoneless sand…". This deposit was also the source of the mammoth remains. Photographs taken in 1927 and now held by NCM (S4) show the deep section that was exposed at the southern edge of the site: the basal gravel layer can be clearly seen. As Wymer notes in (S5), the single published section is insufficient to interpret what was probably a complicated sequence.

Sainty notes that the flakes recovered were "…of distinctly Clactonian type…", whereas the handaxes are described as being of "Acheulian technique". It is also recorded that several scrapers and other flake implements were recovered. It was suggested that the bulk of the material was associated with "…the extended interglacial period following the deposition of the Chalky Boulder Clay". It is also noted that several "…derived Sub-crag and Chellean specimens" were also present, although as with all objects described in this way, these would probably now be regarded as dubious artefacts.

Other contemporary accounts of these discoveries include two newspaper articles (S6), (S7) and two editions of the Carrow Works magazine (S8), (S9). Sainty also noted the site in (S10). Information from (S11).

The exact location of these discoveries is unclear. The mapped extent of this record now shows the approximate extent of the building work that took place in this area during the 1920s and encompasses the grid references given in (S12) (TG 242 075) and on (S13) TG 2435 0747).

THE SURVIVING MATERIAL

Roes (S12) lists the surviving material from the Carrow Works site as comprising:
5 handaxes.
1 unfinished/roughout handaxe.
15 retouched flakes/flake implements.
25 unretouched flakes.
2 miscellaneous fragments.
1 Levallois flake.
At the time it was examined this material was held by the Norwich Castle Museum (NCM), what is now the Cambridge University Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology and by Sainty himself.

Norwich Castle Museum:
It appears that the bulk of the surviving material is held by the Norwich Castle Museum, where material from the site is present in at least four separate collections. According to (S11) these include "Palaeolithic flint implements" that had been donated by Messrs Colman (NWHCM : 1928.134.2 : A); "Palaeolithic flint implements" from the T. F. Newman Collection (NWHCM : 1950.114.2) and material donated by Sainty himself (NWHCM : 1959.43). The objects donated by Sainty are recorded as comprising 3 handaxes and 1 flake, whilst the composition of the other collections is somewhat unclear at present. The NCM also now holds two additional handaxes from this site; one that was bequeathed in 1978 (NWHCM : 1978.262.9) and another that it received following the dispersal of the Colman Museum in 1996 (NWHCM : 1997.91.2).

The NCM also holds a number of worked flints that H. H. Hall collected at Carrow (NWHCM : 1924.83.44). The accession number suggests that these objects were from a location he had designated his Site 44, although it is not recorded where this was.

Cambridge University Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology:
The only objects in the CUMAA that are listed as being from Carrow are 2 flakes that had been donated by H. H. Halls (Z 27940). These are recorded as Palaeolithic and "from terrace gravels of the Wensum, rather higher up the river than Whitlingham". These flakes are presumably the material in the CUMAA listed by Roe (S12).

Other collections:
It is noted on (S11) that the J. E. Sainty Collection included 3 handaxes from this site. The present location of this material is unclear.

The material held by the NCM was examined by Wymer in January 1976 and is briefly described on (S14) and in (S5). The objects identified included an ovate handaxe, a flattish, pointed handaxe in slightly rolled condition and a small irregular handaxe. It is likely that these implements are those that that had been donated by Sainty, particularly as the two larger handaxes are apparently those illustrated in (S1). Wymer also examined at least 30 Palaeolithic flakes in the NCM collection. These are in varying conditions although most are rolled and stained. Several are large primary flakes removed by stone hammer technique and therefore presumably the pieces identified as Clactonian by Sainty. A single possible Levallois flake in sharp condition was also identified - this presumably the piece listed in (S12). In (S5) Wymer notes that the mixed typology and condition of the material from Carrow Works suggests that it is probably not all of one age or industry.

The finds from this site are also noted in (S15) and (S16), although no additional information is given.

POTENTIALLY LATER FINDS

In (S14) and on (S5) Wymer notes that three of the objects he examined were "flake-blades" and potentially "Mousterian of Acheulian Tradition…if not Upper Palaeolithic". It is possible that these objects are indeed Upper Palaeolithic as two blades of this date were recovered nearby at Carrow Works in 1963 (NHER 474). The Birmingham City Museum also holds three objects from Carrow that have been described as "Palaeolithic flakes/blades" and another potentially Upper Palaeolithic blade from Carrow has also been identified in the NCM's collections (see NHER 39499 for further discussion of these poorly-provenanced finds from Carrow).

Amended by P. Watkins (HES), 4 February 2013.

Monument Types

• FINDSPOT (Lower Palaeolithic to Middle Palaeolithic - 1000000 BC to 40001 BC)
• FINDSPOT (Middle Palaeolithic - 150000 BC? to 40001 BC)
• FINDSPOT (Middle Palaeolithic to Upper Palaeolithic - 150000 BC? to 10001 BC)

Associated Finds

• ANIMAL REMAINS (Lower Palaeolithic to Upper Palaeolithic - 500000 BC to 10001 BC)
• FLAKE (Lower Palaeolithic to Middle Palaeolithic - 500000 BC to 40001 BC)
• FLAKE (Lower Palaeolithic to Middle Palaeolithic - 500000 BC to 40001 BC)
• FLAKE (Lower Palaeolithic to Middle Palaeolithic - 500000 BC to 40001 BC)
• HANDAXE (Lower Palaeolithic to Middle Palaeolithic - 500000 BC to 40001 BC)
• HANDAXE (Lower Palaeolithic to Middle Palaeolithic - 500000 BC to 40001 BC)
• HANDAXE (Lower Palaeolithic to Middle Palaeolithic - 500000 BC to 40001 BC)
• LITHIC IMPLEMENT (Lower Palaeolithic to Middle Palaeolithic - 500000 BC to 40001 BC)
• LITHIC IMPLEMENT (Lower Palaeolithic to Middle Palaeolithic - 500000 BC to 40001 BC)
• RETOUCHED FLAKE (Lower Palaeolithic to Middle Palaeolithic - 500000 BC to 40001 BC)
• BLADE? (Middle Palaeolithic to Upper Palaeolithic - 150000 BC? to 10001 BC)
• LEVALLOIS FLAKE? (Middle Palaeolithic - 150000 BC? to 40001 BC)

Protected Status - none

Sources and further reading

Related records - none

Find out more...

• Parish Summary: Norwich (Parish Summary)