NHER 5674 (Find Spot record) - Mesolithic/Neolithic and Neolithic worked flints and Early Neolithic pottery sherds, Thetford St Peter

Early 20th century.
Various prehistoric worked flints collected by H. Dixon Hewitt in the northern part of what was then the parish of Thetford St Peter - an area he designated his Site XX. Hewitt's notes describe this site as "…being that part of the parish next to the Santon boundary: it is bounded by the main Mundford-Thetford road, the aforesaid Santon boundary bank, the Great Eastern Railway and a short imaginary line drawn from the G.E.R to the main road through the Keeper's Lodge beyond Two Mile Bottom" (S1). This site adjoined Hewitt's Site XXIII, which covered the eastern half of Santon Warren (see NHER 5657 for details of finds from this area). Although this represents a large area, it is nevertheless reasonably clearly defined and it has therefore been possible to map the extent of this site. The only assumption that has been made is that the 'Keepers Lodge' is the building marked as Reedfen Lodge on early maps. It should however be noted that, according to (S6), the labels on some of the finds from Site XX suggest that they came from the west of this defined area.

Dixon Hewitt's Site XX included a sub-site he designated Site XX*, which covered the area in the immediate vicinity of St Helen's Well (NHER 5685). Dixon Hewitt's notes record that the Site XX* material included flints similar to those from "…the Two Mile Site of F. N. Haward". This is a reference to an area to the south-east (NHER 5719) that had produced a significant number of what are now recognised to be Mesolithic worked flints. The finds from Dixon Hewitt's Site XX* are recorded under NHER 5656.

FINDS IN MUSEUM COLLECTIONS

The Norwich Castle Museum's main Dixon Hewitt collection (NWHCM : 1922.39) includes a range of worked flints from this area, the majority marked with both a site number and additional information regarding their date of discovery and/or provenance. It is recorded in (S5) that the NCM's Hewitt collection includes a number of potentially Mesolithic flints from "[Thetford] St Peter's, near St Helens (or Tanner's) Well", these listed as 3 cores, 24 blades/flakes and 10 scrapers. At least some of these pieces are probably from Site XX* (see NHER 5656), although it is likely that the totals also include flints with the more general Site XX provenance. Flints from site Site XX recorded by the NCM as Mesolithic/Neolithic include 2 small blade cores, 1 core rejuvenation flake, 3 retouched blades, 1 notched flake, 4 small scrapers and a number of blades and flakes. These flints were seen during a rapid scan of the collection by P. Watkins (HES) in October 2014.

A number of other finds in the NCM from Dixon Hewitt's Site XX are listed in (S2) including material from the main collection (NWHCM : 1922.39)) and finds that were transferred from the Cambridge University Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology in 1955 (NWHCM : 1955.179):
3 Middle Neolithic pottery sherds (1 rim sherd and 2 body sherds from the same pot as 2 sherds from the adjacent Site XXIII; NHER 5657). See drawing (S7). These are not particularly diagnostic but seem to represent a round based bowl. The heavily flint-gritted fabric is consistent with Mortlake ware.
1 Early Neolithic from "Santon Road N. side halfway to St. Helen's Well from Fengate [approx. TL 845 875]" (rim sherd with impressed crescentic 'maggots', Mortlake).
A number of worked flints are also listed including:
1 Early Neolithic leaf-shaped arrowhead.
1 Neolithic (or later) transverse petit tranchet derivative arrowhead, 5 oblique petit tranchet derivative arrowheads, 1 triangular arrowhead, 1 edge-polished scraper, 2 long-pointed piercers, 1 edge-polished knife, 1 flaked flint axe and 1 fragmentary polished axe.

It is noted by (S3) that the Birmingham Museum also holds Dixon Hewitt finds marked "Site XX" and labelled variously as "Santon Warren", "Thetford St Peter", "Santon Road Thetford St P". This material includes:
8 prehistoric flint scrapers, 1 hollow scraper, 1 discoidal scraper, 1 utilised blade, 1 large utilised flake, 1 triangular knife and 1 plunging flake (NH47'28, 72'38-1 to 6).
The majority of these are presumably Neolithic, although no date is given. Information from Birmingham Museum. These finds are the 27 flints from "Site XX" noted in (S4).

Amended by P. Watkins (HES), 15 May 2014 and 6 October 2014.