St Mary’s Oxted
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GIANT
By David Cook
When St. Mary’s Churchyard team was working in the Churchyard extension
clearing up some hedge trimmings for burning, I found a large flint which was most
unusual and appeared to have been “Worked” but which was still surprisingly
sharp. I approached Chris Hasler who is
an active member of the local history society and he passed the flint on to
experts at the
The axe is just over a foot long (314mm) and is in mint condition (that
is it shows no sign of wear or plough damage and had not been retouched after
wear). Because of its condition, the
first thought was that it might have been dug up during grave digging and thrown
under a hedge. This part of the cemetery
was first used in 1929-1932. From its
condition it seems likely that it has been under the hedge since then.
Immediately on the other side of the hedge is a small stream with deep
banks, which have been re-cut within the last five years. The Tandridge District cemetery is on the
opposite bank of the stream and is still in use with a few graves less than ten
years old. The gravedigger has been
shown the axe but he does not remember seeing it. Perhaps the axe was grubbed out and thrown
under the hedge when the stream was cleaned out.
5,000 – 8,000 years old
An expert on worked flints, Roger Ellarby, has discussed the axe with a
special lithic (stone artefact) committee of the Surrey Archaeological Society
and it is believed to be Mesolithic, or possibly early Neolithic, something in
the region of 5,000 to 8,000 years old.
The axe is a type sometimes known as a “Thames Pick”. One end is pointed and the other chisel
shaped like a modern pick. It is much
larger than usual for such picks and the
Roger Ellarby says its condition and its extremely large size (two or
three times longer than most other axes of this type) might suggest ceremonial
use or a votive deposition in the adjacent stream (if it existed at the
time). A much shorter axe of roughly the
same type was found under the viaduct in Oxted in a joining stream. Could the axe have marked the status of an
important person and been disposed of when he or she died? Sometimes a valuable object was thrown into
water as a gratitude offering to appease the gods. Was this part of Oxted as a religious
site? There have been suggestions that
the church is built on a circular mound, which may have been a burial or other
holy site in prehistoric times, although probably at a much later date than the
days of the axe.
I find it amazing to think that an ancient Briton (someone’s great great
etc. Grandfather) patiently worked on this very old and large piece of flint
and crafted it into the beautiful shape of a useful (and yet apparently
un-used) object. The thought that it may
well have been used for ceremonial purposes – possibly as a “badge of office”
for a local King – is a humbling one.
What artefacts that we have today will still be around 5,000 – 8,000
years hence? The Briton who crafted this
flint was born many years before Abraham – what stories could it tell us of
life in