NHER 9426 (Find Spot record) - Possible Palaeolithic worked flints, Ayton's Stone Pit, Browick Road

?Early 20th century. Stray Find.
A large gravel quarry known as Ayton's Stone Pit was open at this site during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. According to (S1) this pit produced Palaeolithic "Acheulian or Chellean" flint artefacts. It is therefore possible that this pit was the source of at least some of the unprovenanced Palaeolithic material recorded as having been found in this parish. These finds (described in more detail under NHER 9425) include at least two handaxes.

This pit may also be the source of the material that led to Wymondham being listed in (S2) as a location that had produced Palaeolithic material prior to 1907 (objects that had been recovered by both W. G. Clarke and G. Rye). However, only one source - the account of a talk given by H. Dixon Hewitt in 1911 (S3) - makes direct reference to flints recovered in the Ayton Pit. These are described as being battered and bruised flakes and do not appear to have been particularly convincing as deliberately worked pieces. This brief report also includes a relatively detailed description of the stratigraphy exposed in the sides of the quarry.
Amended by P. Watkins (HES), 23 February 2014.

This record previously located the Ayton quarry in a field to the south of the Browick Road (centred on TG 117 014). This is incorrect - no pit is marked here on any of the cartographic sources consulted. The current mapped extent of the record now reflects the more likely location of the Ayton Pit: a large pit that lay close to the eastern edge of the town.
P. Watkins (HES), 23 February 2014.