The Lower Palaeolithic material from Ranscombe Farm Hop Gardens, Cuxton, Kent
By Frank Beresford
On the 24th August 1889, George Payne visited Rev. Canon Charles Colson at the Rectory in Cuxton. As he entered the gate, he noticed and recovered a Palaeolithic handaxe lying on the bank by the side of the path (Payne, 1893.) Payne was later able to record three further Palaeolithic handaxes found within two or three yards of the spot over a period of seven years, including one found by workmen laying a drain on the driveway a few feet away from the gate (Payne 1902.) The initial and subsequent finds, one of which was found by a member of the Colson family, were donated to the Rochester Museum, now the Guildhall Museum, of which George Payne was the curator. He listed these handaxes as items 26 to 29 in the new Museum Inventory. In 1962 Peter Tester returned to the site and found one of Britain’s most significant ‘in situ’ Palaeolithic assemblages (Tester 1965.) His work was supplemented by two subsequent excavations across the road from the Rectory grounds (Cruse 1987, Wenban-Smith 2006.)
The Rev. Canon Charles Colson (1818 – 1901) was an antiquarian and a member of the Kent Archaeological Society. When at Cambridge in 1839, he helped to found the Cambridge Camden Society as a club for Cambridge undergraduates who shared a common interest in Gothic church design. The society took its name from the 16th-century antiquary and historian William Camden.
He moved to Cuxton in 1874 with his large family of sons and daughters, his wife having died in 1859. ‘Although he subsequently passed his life in the quiet labours of a village clergyman, he was a man of great intellectual distinction. His mental activity and love of knowledge never ceased and he
was always eager to read all new books of importance’ (Obituary: The Guardian 8th May 1901.)
He and his family would have examined Payne’s first Palaeolithic find from the Rectory drive, carefully noting its distinctive attributes.
During the later 1890s, a member of the Colson Family identified other Palaeolithic material found in the Ranscombe Farm Hop Gardens (Figure Two) on the North Downs to the northwest of Cuxton Rectory.
Some items were given initially to George Payne, but all eventually joined the collections in the Rochester Museum. Payne listed 13 items found in the Ranscombe Farm Hop Gardens in his new Museum Inventory, numbering them as items 9 to 21 (Fig 3). Further down, the inventory confirms that items 9 to 13 and 17 to 18 were donated by George Payne while R. Colson donated items 14 to 16 and 19 to 21.
Above
Fig 1: George Payne (left)] & The Rev. Canon Charles Colson (right)]
Payne described five ‘celts of white flint’ and three ‘celts of grey flint.’ He also listed two scrapers, a curved flake and two hammerstones. The ‘celts’ or handaxes are typologically Palaeolithic, but less certainty is attached to the other artefacts found. George Payne also used the term ‘celt’ for many Palaeolithic handaxes in the Guildhall Museum from the Twydall Chalk Pit. Only two white ‘celts’ or handaxes from the Ranscombe Farm Hop Gardens (11 & 14) and the two hammer stones can now be traced in the museum. They are described in Table One.
The writing on the flints confirms the links with the Colson Family and the dates of the finds. One white ‘celt’ (11, Fig 4) is marked ‘2 CF 1895’ and the other (14 Fig 5) is marked ‘August 19/95 R.C.
R. Colson’. As the two remaining handaxes (11 & 14) with white patination are both marked 1895, it is probable that the three missing white patinated handaxes (12, 13 & 15) were also found in this year and that together all five represent an associated assemblage. One hammer stone (17) is marked
Sept 1898 R Colson (Table 1).
The Hop Gardens where the Palaeolithic material was found were situated in the northwest of the area at Ranscombe Farm. They then covered what are now the fields stretching up as far
This suggests that the finds were made during this busy season, possibly during a visit by the
Top
Fig 2: Square Oasts at Ranscombe Farm, Cuxton, Kent in 2009. They replaced three round Oasts that served the Ranscombe Farm Hop Gardens in the 1890s but were demolished by a V1 flying bomb on 14th November 1944. Photo © Oast House Archive (cc-by-sa/2.0)
Bottom
Fig 3: The entries in the Rochester Museum Inventory that list all the artefacts found in the Ranscombe Farm Hop Gardens 1895 – 1901
Original Collection Number | Description | Staining/ Patination/ condition | Inscriptions | Length mm | Width mm | Thickness mm | Weight gms |
A11 | Ovate handaxe Small flake removal on each face and around edges Carefully made Small break at one end. | White patina. Brown red on ridges/ good | A11 2 CF 1895 Ranscombe | 92.9 | 65.0 | 29.5 | 197 |
A14 | Biface/hand axe with clear base or platform. Small flake removal on each face | White patina with blue-grey at working end Brown red on ridges /good | A14 Ranscombe August 19/95 R.C. R. Colson | 90.4 | 51.4 | 24.0 | 152 |
A16 | Rounded hammer stone with clear pitting on working end and most of the cortex removed before use. | Grey white patina | A86/1 Ranscombe | 59.8 | 66.7 | 60.5 | 328 |
A17 | Rounded hammer stone with clear pitting on working end and most of the cortex removed before use. | Grey patina | A86/2 Ranscombe Sept 1898 R Colson Hammerstone | 65.4 | 62.8 | 52.9 | 300 |
Table 1
Description of the artefacts remaining in the Guildhall Museum, Rochester that were found in the Ranscombe Farm Hop Gardens 1895 – 1901
Above
Fig 6: The Field Names at Ranscombe Farm in 1839 based upon the map prepared by James Renshaw for the Tithe Commissioners and redrawn by Derek Church in 1970 (Church 1976, 119.)
Top (L, R)
Fig 4: A11 – one of the two remaining Palaeolithic hand axes found in the Ranscombe Farm Hop Gardens in 1895. Both faces are shown Bottom (L, R)
Fig 5: A14 – the other remaining Palaeolithic hand axe found in the Ranscombe Farm Hop Gardens 19th August 1895. Both faces are shown
Canon or by another member of his family. It is possible that one of the hop workers made the initial finds in 1895, which the Canon or a family member then identified. George Payne would also have been informed, and the workers would then have been encouraged to look for more.
The search continued during hop picking over the next few years. As only thirteen items were found during this period, the handaxes and other artefacts must have been difficult to locate. However, a similar artefact has recently been found in the Ranscombe area by Dave May (pers. comm.) The last hops were grown at
Ranscombe Farm in 1958. It is now Plantlife’s largest Nature Reserve.
George Clinch, writing in 1919, noted that “experience has proved that land with a rocky subsoil, such as is found in the valley of the Medway, is particularly suitable for hops” (Clinch 1919,23.) The Ranscombe Farm Hop Gardens were located on a superficial deposit of the Clay-with-Flints Formation, which provided a rocky subsoil. This overlies the Lewes Nodular Chalk Formation. The Clay-with-Flints Formation has a dominant lithology of orange-brown and red-brown sandy clay with abundant nodules and rounded pebbles of flint. Angular flints are derived from the Chalk Formations from the Cretaceous Period and rounded flints, sand and clay from the Palaeogene formations. It is a residual deposit formed during the Pleistocene period from the dissolution, decalcification and cryoturbation of bedrock strata of the Chalk Group and the formerly overlying Palaeogene formations. It is unbedded and heterogeneous. (Source British Geological Survey © 2021; Fig 7)
In the Medway Valley Palaeolithic Project report, Frances Wenban- Smith noted that several handaxes with shapes varying from pointed/ sub-cordate to cordate had been found near Ranscombe Farm.
He suggested that none of these handaxes could have moved far from where they were initially discarded (Wenban-Smith et al., 2007, 32.) Most of the superficial deposits mapped as Clay-with- flints cap the highest levels on the Chalk Downlands of Southern
Britain. Many Palaeolithic artefacts have been retrieved from these deposits, including many sites in Kent (Scott-Jackson, 2000, 27.) Stratigraphically, these Palaeolithic finds form part of a mixture of material still bearing some evidence of its former form. All Palaeolithic finds from the last 600,000 years, or more are combined into a single horizon. Consequently, although they represent Palaeolithic activity on the Clay-with-flints plateau, this activity cannot be confidently linked to a specific interglacial or glacial period known as Marine Isotope Stages (See Fig 3).
Despite the Clay-with-flints plateau at Ranscombe Farm rising to 80m to 90m OD, it is not on the highest level of the Downs at this point. It is below the hill to Cobham and
Shorne, which rises to 130m OD but above Mill Hill that leads down to the Luddesdown Valley at 20m OD and then down to the current path of the Medway. The river now occupies a narrow, steep-sided valley through the chalk of the North Downs.
During the Pleistocene Epoch, also known as the Ice Ages, this path has evolved through eastward and downward movement. Interestingly, two gravel deposits associated with former courses of the Medway and known as river terraces have been identified both above and below the Ranscombe Clay-with-flints plateau.
The Medway, which had been in existence for over two million years, drained northward from the centre of the Weald and was confluent with the Thames in eastern Essex until about half a million years ago. Its early local path is indicated by a gravel deposit or on the hill above Ranscombe by what was initially described as the oldest Medway deposit or terrace: the Cobham Park Gravel – now thought to be the second oldest. This caps a Thanet Sand Formation outlier in Cobham Park (TQ 700 683), at over 130 m OD. David Bridgland tentatively suggested the age for this gravel
Above
Fig 7: The Geology of the Ranscombe Farm Hop Gardens and the surrounding area. (Contains British Geological Survey materials © 2021)
Number on map | Description |
Superficial deposits from the Pleistocene / Quaternary Period | |
1 | Alluvium – Clay, Silt, Sand And Gravel |
2 | Beach And Tidal Flat Deposits (Undifferentiated) – Clay, Silt And Sand |
3 | River Terrace Deposits, 1 – Clay And Silt |
4 | River Terrace Deposits, 3 – Sand And Gravel |
5 | Clay-with-flints Formation – Clay, Silt, Sand And Gravel |
Bedrock geology – Palaeogene Formations | |
6 | Lenham Formation – Sand And Gravel |
7 | Harwich Formation – Sand And Gravel |
8 | London Clay Formation – Clay And Silt |
9 | Lambeth Group – Sand, Silt And Clay |
10 | Thanet Formation – Sand |
11 | Thanet Formation – Sand, Silt And Clay |
Bedrock geology – Cretaceous Formations | |
12 | Seaford Chalk Formation – Chalk |
13 | Seaford Chalk Formation And Newhaven Chalk Formation (Undifferentiated) – Chalk |
14 | Lewes Nodular Chalk Formation – Chalk |
15 | Lewes Nodular Chalk Formation, Seaford Chalk Formation And Newhaven Chalk Formation (Undifferentiated) – Chalk |
16 | New Pit Chalk Formation – Chalk |
17 | Holywell Nodular Chalk Formation – Chalk |
Table 2
Key to Fig 7. The Geology of the Ranscombe Farm Hop Gardens and the surrounding area in the Early Pleistocene circa 1.85 million years ago (see Table 3.) The Medway subsequently moved eastwards from the Cobham Park area before cutting the gap through the Chalk. This lateral migration was possible while it still flowed on the Thanet Sand Formation, and this also preserved the evidence for its earlier path (Bridgland, 2003)
The lower gravel deposit evidence is the site at Cuxton Rectory, situated on a Chalk spur between the Medway and the south bank of the now dry Luddesdown northwest tributary valley. The excavations by Tester (1965) established the presence of a thin body of fluvial gravel lying on a Chalk terrace bench at c. 17m OD.
In 1996, Bridgland, after examining several possible projections of the Medway River Terraces, decided that Cuxton lies on Medway river terrace 3, which he suggested may correlate with either the Lynch Hill/ Corbets Tey or Taplow/Mucking Terrace Formations of the Thames, which are linked to MIS 10/9/8 or MIS 8/7/6, respectively (see Table 3.) The dating of this fluvial gravel following the 2006 excavations placed it in early MIS 7, or right at the end of MIS 8 (Wenban-Smith et al. 2007, 31.) This would make it the youngest Acheulian site in Britain. This dating is being reviewed.
The imprecise dating of these two deposits only hints at the possible date range for the Palaeolithic material found at Ranscombe Farm Hop Gardens.
Epoch | Age in years before present (BP) | Marine Isotope Stage (MIS) | British Stage Name | Climate |
Holocene | Present to 11,700 | 1 | Holocene | Warm — full interglacial |
Late Pleistocene | 25,000 | 2 | Devensian | Mainly cold; coldest in Marine Isotope Stage 2 when Britain depopulated and maximum advance of Devensian ice sheets; occasional short-lived periods of relative warmth (“interstadials”), and more prolonged warmth in Marine Isotope Stage 3 |
50,000 | 3 | |||
70,000 | 4 | |||
110,000 | 5a–d | |||
125,000 | 5e | Ipswichian | Warm — full interglacial | |
Middle Pleistocene | 190,000 | 6 | Saalian | Alternating periods of cold and warmth; recently recognised that this period includes more than one glacial-interglacial cycle; changes in faunal evolution and Assemblage associations through the period help distinguish its different stages. |
240,000 | 7 | |||
300,000 | 8 | |||
340,000 | 9 | |||
380,000 | 10 | |||
425,000 | 11 | Hoxnian | Warm — full interglacial | |
480,000 | 12 | Anglian | Cold — maximum extent southward of glacial ice in Britain; may incorporate interstadials that have been confused with Cromerian complex interglacials | |
620,000 | 13–16 | Cromerian complex | Cycles of cold and warmth; still poorly understood due to obliteration of sediments by subsequent events | |
780,000 | 17–19 | |||
Early Pleistocene | 1,800,000 | 20–64 | Cycles of cool and warmth, but generally not sufficiently cold for glaciation in Britain |
Table 3
Quaternary (Ice Age) epochs and the Marine Isotope Stage framework showing the cycles of warm and cold periods (based on Wenban-Smith et al. 2010, revised 2019)]
However, it allows space for the possibility that many of these higher-level Palaeolithic finds on the Chalk Downlands are from a period that is possibly post-Anglian (such as MIS 11) but could also be earlier (such as MIS 13-16.) The probability that none of these handaxes has moved far from where they were initially discarded supports this suggestion. Clearly, further research is needed here.
Current evidence suggests that the Cuxton and Cobham area has been attractive to earlier populations of humans at several periods in deep history. The artefacts found in the Ranscombe Farm Hop Gardens would represent the earliest occupation in the area. These hilltop sites are important as they add potentially significant locations in the landscape to the more securely dated Palaeolithic sites that usually occur at lower levels, such as the Cuxton Rectory site.
The current difficulties with dating and reconstructing the associated environment and climate relating to the makers of the artefacts found in deposits mapped as clay-with-flints make such sites challenging to utilise. Despite this, the Ranscombe Farm Hop Gardens site is another significant site for those wishing to understand the nature and extent of the earliest human occupation of Kent
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
The author would like to thank Steve Nye of the Guildhall Museum, Rochester, for his help and access to the artefacts.
He would also like to thank Stan Mathews for his helpful comments and suggestions on an earlier draft. This research was undertaken as part of the Cobham Landscape Detectives Project.
REFERENCES
Bridgland, D.R. 1996. Quaternary river terrace deposits as a framework for the Lower Palaeolithic record. In Gamble,
C.G. & Lawson, A. (eds), The English Palaeolithic Reviewed, 23-9. Salisbury: Trust for Wessex Archaeology
Bridgland D. R. 2003 The evolution of the River Medway, SE England, in the context of Quaternary palaeoclimate and the Palaeolithic occupation of NW Europe. Proceedings of the
Geologists’ Association, 114, 23-48.
Church, D., 1976, Cuxton, A Kentish Village, Arthur J Cassell, Sheerness.
Clinch G., 1919, English Hops, McCorquodale & Co. Ltd.
Cruse, J., 1987. Further investigations of the Acheulian site at Cuxton. Archaeologia Cantiana 56: 39–81.
Scott-Jackson J.E. 2000, Lower and Middle Palaeolithic Deposits from deposits mapped as Clay- with-flints. Oxbow Books, Oxford.
Tester, P.J. 1965. An Acheulian site at Cuxton. Archaeologia Cantiana 80, 30-60
Wenban-Smith, F., 2006. Handaxe typology and the Lower Palaeolithic cultural development: ficrons, cleavers and two giant handaxes from Cuxton.
Lithics 25 (for 2004): 11-21.
Wenban-Smith F., Bates M.R., Marshall G. 2007. The Palaeolithic Resources in the Medway Valley. Medway Valley Palaeolithic Project Final Report (available online)
Wenban-Smith F., Bates M.R., Bridgland D.R., Harp P., Pope M., and Roberts M., 2010. South- East Research Framework (Serf), The Early Palaeolithic.