NHER 6612 (Find Spot record) - Palaeolithic side scraper and part of a Neolithic polished flint axehead

1912. Stray Find.
Found in Routs Field near 'Chequers':
1 Neolithic fragmentary polished flint axe (end), measuring 3 1/4 [8.2cm] by 2 inches [5cm].
Information from (S1).
Amended by P. Watkins (HES), 26 March 2013.

Early 20th century. Stray Find.
The Norwich Castle Museum holds a Palaeolithic 'retouched flake/flake implement' that was found "near the Chequers". This object is listed in (S2) and is almost certainly one of the objects found by J. Cox (the headmaster of Gresham School) during the late 19th century or early 20th century (and therefore now part of the NCM's Cox-Barclay Collection (NWHCM : 1935.57 : A).

According to (S3) this object is a side scraper and is recorded as having been found "near the chequers, in sand near the surface". This object is also noted in (S4), (S5) and (S6).

On (S3) and subsequent source it is suggested that this scraper may be unpatinated "implement of black flint" that Cox found to the south of Gresham and exhibited at a meeting of the Prehistoric Society of East Anglia on 9 December 1919 (S7). This is described as having been found "…at a very low altitude at a spot where the glacial sand slopes to the low-lying clay to the S. of Gresham". It should however be noted that in (S4) Wymer (potentially erroneously) lists this object separately as "…another unrolled handaxe found in low lying ground to the south of Gresham". See NHER 6600 for further discussion of the object exhibited by Cox.

It should be noted that it is unlikely that this scraper was recovered from the same place as the flint axe described above, and as such the mapped extent of this record should only be seen as a very approximate location for this find.
P. Watkins (HES), 26 March 2013.