In the Blackmore Museum there were in 1872 four implements of chert, of oval and tongue-shaped types, found during the erection of the telegraph posts between Chard and Axminster. There was also another thin oval implement of ochreous flint, 712 inches long and 312 broad, which was found near Colyton, Devon. The exact locality where those first mentioned were found, is unknown; but it appears probable that the gravel, like that at Colyton, belongs to the valley of the Axe, in which I suggested in 1872 that further search should be made.
Such a search has long since been rewarded. In 1877[1] I recorded some discoveries at Broom, near Axminster, and in 1878 the late Mr. W. S. M. D'Urban[2] gave an account of the ballast pit at Broom, in the parish of Hawkchurch, near Axminster, and close to the river Axe. It was worked in a low hill consisting of chert gravel intermingled with seams of ferruginous and sandy clay, and a section was exposed about 40 feet deep, the base being about 150 feet above the level of the sea, which comes within a distance of about six miles. At that time numerous palæolithic implements of various types had been found in the pit. They were formed of dark Upper Greensand chert, and some were much water-worn, while others were quite sharp and uninjured. Since then very many more have been collected, and a fine series of them is preserved in the Albert Memorial Museum at Exeter. There are also some good specimens in the Horniman Museum[3] at Forest Hill, S.E. I have engraved a typical example of the ovate form in my own collection as Fig. 477.
Some implements from Broom are of large size. I have a very rude specimen that I found among the ballast on the South Western Railway in August, 1877. It is 812 inches long and 6 inches wide. Other specimens are small. The ovate type seems to predominate, but the pointed forms are not scarce. A few broad flakes trimmed at the edges, of the so-called Le Moustier type, occur with the other forms.
In the valley of the Culm, at Kentisbeare, near Cullompton, Mr. W. Downes,[4] in 1879, found a chert implement in form like Plate II., Fig. 17.
With the exception of those from the bone-caves of Devonshire, no palæolithic implements have as yet been found farther west in Britain.
- ↑ Brit. Assoc. Rep., 1877, p. 116. Journ. Anth. Inst., vol. vii., 1878, p. 499.
- ↑ Geol. Mag., Dec. 2, vol. v., 1878, p. 37. See also Trans. Dev. Assoc., vol. xvi., 1884, p. 501.
- ↑ "Natural Science," vol. x. (1897), p. 224.
- ↑ Geol. Mag., 2nd Dec, vol. vi., 1879, p. 480. Trans. Devon. Assoc., vol. xii., 1880, p. 445.
