Thought I'd better use my English Heritage membership to visit here. I've been a couple of times before but last time the children were probably under 10 so it was a long time ago.
It's in Norfolk, NW of Thetford just over an hour from home.
The area was named by the Anglo Saxons meaning "Pits of the Pagan God Grim"
From ground level it's difficult to see this very weird landscape of grassy hollows. Below is just one of hundreds. The empty area of Grimes Graves is surrounded on all sides by forest.
Recently this building has been erected over the entrance to the only pit that is open to view. It involves climbing down a long ladder backwards, which I didn't fancy but there is also a video of everything down there which I sat and watched instead.
Flint from Norfolk has been found all over the country, needed everywhere so traded widely.
Then along came the Bronze and Iron Ages and mining at Grimes Graves finished
Sheep graze the site to keep the grass down.
The English Heritage Website page is HERE
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I remember Phil knapping flints on Time Team. I'd like to see Grimes Graves one day.
ReplyDeleteQuite a skill and the flints were used for all sorts of things
DeleteElly Griffiths features Grimes Graves in one of her books: https://ellygriffiths.co.uk/book/the-last-remains/
ReplyDeleteAlison
I was just about to comment that that is where I know of them from as well!
DeleteI've read it but forgotten already!
DeleteI really must visit sometime!
ReplyDeleteIt's worth a look and no too far from you
DeleteMany years ago when I was younger and much fitter I went down into one of the caves, I remember the steel stairs and having to go down backwards wearing a hard hat. It didn't have the building over the entrance then, just a lift up lid in the ground. It is a fascinating place:)
ReplyDeleteI did read when they put the building up, not so many years ago but I've forgotten exactly. I think we went down there once or maybe I had to stay up top with youngest daughter - forgotten that too!
DeleteI think I would just have watched the video too, what a fascinating place.
ReplyDeleteIt's a very odd landscape, must have puzzled the ancient people
DeleteI had never realised that flint was mined and it's amazing to realise how deep some of those mines were. I watched the English Heritage film with great interest. Thank you for the link.
ReplyDeleteFlint is our only stone in Suffolk and Norfolk so has always been important for everything
DeleteLovely take on Grimes Grave Sue a fascinating tour, thank you.
ReplyDeleteThanks for taking us on your tour with you. I had no idea that flint was mined so it’s always good to learn something new. Catriona
ReplyDeleteWhat a lovely post - that's somewhere I've always wanted to visit. There was a very interesting programme I watched recently - Ben Fogle met a man, Will Lord, who was born in 1970, and who grew up at Grime's Graves (his father was the custodian of the site). Anyway, he is pretty well the best flint knapper in the world and gives courses, but found it very hard to live in the real world and instead had his own retreat in the woods where he lived a fairly Neolithic life. Worth checking it out.
ReplyDeleteNote: The bluestone there came from Wales initially!! So it has travelled from one side of the country to the other and clearly had a specific meaning or use.
It's been a while since I saw that Ben Fogle New Lives in the Wild episode. Haven't watched his more recent series - went right off him
DeleteP.S. There's a beach in Wales (Wiseman's Bridge) where on the beach is a big pile of black flints (nearest place they are found is Somerset) which was wrecked or abandoned there. Clearly there would have been an inland trade route from Wiseman's Bridge into Wales from there - and the Presceli Hills are where the Bluestones are found . . .
ReplyDeleteI learned in an archaeology course that flint for stronger tools needs to have been mined as frozen flint becomes brittle. Thank you for a great post.
ReplyDeleteThe video said the better quality flint was deeper but didn't say why, so it's interesting to know about frost
DeleteSo informative, TQ
ReplyDeleteAlison in Devon x
You're welcome!
DeleteI never knew flint had to be mined. How astute they were to know that and design mining techniques.
ReplyDeleteNot many people know how to prepare flint now, the skill is almost lost
DeleteWell, I knew nothing about flint mining. It's hard to wrap my head around how long ago that happened!
ReplyDeleteIt's amazing when you stop to think about how long ago this was
DeleteMining was always a dangerous job. To think the large circular depressions on the surface of the ground were flint mines. Fascinating.
ReplyDeleteMany stone buildings and churches, still standing today, used flint to build the massive walls. The walls are beautiful.
Thank you for the tour.
It's a very strange landscape to walk through.
DeleteMy wife Jane loves visiting places like that - she'd spend hours reading all about it and pouring over every poster. If I'm honest it's not for me, but I do think its good that we preserve these places and make them available.
ReplyDeleteI wish that we could have seen this on our trip to the UK. Such an interesting site.
ReplyDeleteGod bless.
It would be interesting to re-read the Ruth Galloway mystery about a site like this after having actually gone. As I recall the scene was terribly claustrophobic, which I guess means well written!
ReplyDeleteCeci
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ReplyDeleteThis is fascinating Sue. Our natives used flint tools as well, but I have never heard of them mining it.
ReplyDeleteVery interesting, thank you.
ReplyDeletePenny
I remember Grimes Graves from one of my school cadet corps summer camps at Thetford - it was one of the options to visit on our 'free' day. That was over 50 years ago now, so much has probably changed since then.
ReplyDeleteI think my brother went there on a school trip and I was so jealous! I've never been. Sounds really interesting.
ReplyDelete