Findspot record TQ 57 SW 123 - Shepherd's Lane, Dartford, 5 Palaeolithic handaxes

Shepherd's Lane, Dartford, 5 handaxes mostly pointed but including at least one cordate were seen by Roe (1). Three of them held at Dartford Museum were described by Wymer (2) as pointed (one of them small and found on the surface by FW Gill in 1890) and the other Dartford Museum specimen was a cordate. There were various pits along Shepherds Lane and this is one likely source, being two small pits either side of Shepherds Lane 800m to the east of Dartford Heath, far enough from Dartford Heath to be given a different name, but in a position where gravel-rich deposits are likely to have produced palaeoliths. The site is included in the SRPP (3) with another possible estimated location at TQ 529 737.

<1> Roe, D.A., 1968, Gazetteer of British Lower and Middle Palaeolithic Sites, p 149 (Monograph). SWX6570.

<2> Wymer, JJ, 1968, Lower Palaeolithic Archaeology in Britain as represented by the Thames Valley., p 328 (Monograph). SKE29697.

<3> Wessex Archaeology, 1993, The Southern Rivers Palaeolithic Project, Report No.2: The South West and South of the Thames [Vol. I - text], NWK 3.17 (Monograph). SWX6569.