Age of the Baker's Hole Coombe Rock, Northfleet, Kent
Prof. W. B. R. King and Dr. K. P. Oakley discussed this subject in Nature of January 13, 19451.
The Flint Industries of Bapchild
During the autumn of 1927, Mr. S. Williams, of Murston, observed palaeolithic implements in a gravelly deposit underlying the brickearth in the pit which lies west of Haywood Farm, Bapchild. He kept a watch on the site, and, shortly after his first finds had been made, a small quarry was sunk in the bottom of the brickpit. This exposed the sub-brickearth deposits in section, and here Mr. Williams, assisted by Mr. T. Revel and other keen workers, carried out excavations, by permission of the owners of the property, Messrs. Smeed, Dean & Co., Ltd. Their labours were rewarded by a haul of more than four hundred artifacts, of Le Moustier type. The brickearth dug at Bapchild is placed in a wash-mill and converted to slurry, in which state it is pumped to the brickworks. The wash-mill is periodically cleaned out, and from the accumulation of stones that, at such times, is removed from the mill, a number of flakes of post-Le Moustier form have been found. These obviously came from the brickearth, but none had hitherto been found in situ . Towards the end of 1928 Mr. Williams was joined in his work of implement hunting by Mr. E. A. Mount, of Sittingbourne, whom he advised to give special attention to the brickearth in an endeavour to discover the source of the flakes that had been found in the wash-mill.
Excavations at Brundon, Suffolk (1935–37)
For several years prior to 1935, the Ipswich Museum, through the kindness of Mr P. H. Jordan, had been enriched by gifts of fossil mammalian bones and teeth found in a gravel pit at Brundon, near Sudbury, Suffolk. From my occasional visits to this excavation, it was clear that a very rich bone bed existed there, and discoveries from time to time, of flint implements in the gravel, led me to conclude that excavations conducted at this site would yield good results. This was confirmed by the geological features of the section, which appeared to show a stratified gravel resting upon, and overlaid by, glacial deposits, thus affording an opportunity of examining that by no means common phenomenon—a true inter-glacial bed. I communicated with my friend Professor P. G. H. Boswell, F.R.S., who, after an examination of the section, agreed with me that it would repay detailed research. Work was begun by means of a grant from the British Association, which appointed the following as a committee to undertake the research: Professor W. B. R. King, O.B.E. (chairman), Mr Guy Maynard (Secretary), Mr D. F. W. Baden-Powell, Professor P. G. H. Boswell, O.B.E., F.R.S., Mr J. Reid Moir, F.R.S., Mr K. P. Oakley, Mr C. D. Ovey, Dr J. D. Solomon, and Sir Arthur Smith Woodward, F.R.S.