Excavations at Farnham, Surrey (1937–38): The Horsham Culture and the Question of Mesolithic Dwellings

Abstract

The scene of the excavations described in the first part of this paper is the Sewage Farm of the Farnham (Surrey) Urban District Council, situated on the gravels of the old course of the Blackwater River to the north-east of the town at an elevation of c. 250 ft. O.D. (fig. 1). The surface of the gravel within the area investigated is level, but to the west it slopes upwards to Farnham Park. From here there issues the course of a stream, which, skirting the site on the south-west, turns south to join the Wey half a mile to the south. In recent years the Park stream has been captured near its source by a system of swallow-holes, and to-day its effective source is the spring which breaks out from the Chalk below the gravel spread in the immediate neighbourhood of the site. The Bourne Mill Spring, as it is usually known, has cut its way back an appreciable distance, having formed a small valley of its own, so that it can lay claim to a fair antiquity; indeed, there is every reason for regarding it as a main attraction of the site from Mesolithic times onwards (pl. VI). At the present day the spring retains its purity unaffected by the disposal of sewage and is still a well-known stopping place for tramps. For an account of the site written from a geological point of view the reader is referred to Appendix I, kindly supplied by Dr K. P. Oakley, F.G.S.