Baker's Hole
Baker's Hole is a geological Site of Special Scientific Interest, mostly consisting of a back-filled quarry, adjacent to Ebbsfleet International railway station in Kent. It is a Geological Conservation Review site. It is a nationally significant site for finds during quarrying of Stone Age tools, which are now dispersed among many museums. Location Baker's Hole is in the Ebbsfleet valley south of the river Thames in Kent, an area rich in significant Paleolithic sites, including Swanscombe Heritage Park just to the west, and Swanscombe Thameside Community School ("Swan Valley School" in some sources) across Southfleet Road. Baker's Hole is traditionally described as in Northfleet, Gravesham but is now described as in the parish of "Swanscombe and Greenhithe" by Kent County Council. For the main periods of archaeological finds, the site was quarried by the Associated Portland Cement Manufacturers Ltd – the Swanscombe/Northfleet area was where William Aspdin had pioneered Portland cement in the 1840s. Quarrying is now finished and most of the site has been back-filled. Locating the precise findspots for the material described as coming from Baker's Hole is somewhat complicated, and the area from which they came is more precisely described as "Southfleet Pit" within the larger quarry;