PREHISTORY OF COMBE VALLEY - Ice Age to 1 AD
A developing essay on the 10,000 years of history since the last Ice Age, in Combe Valley, near Bexhill, East Sussex, England.
BCE
In the distant past dinosaurs roamed the land in what is now called Glyne Gap beach.
After the last Ice Age, as the ice melted so the English Channel formed, drowning a huge forest which stretched to France. The Combe Haven river was far larger and flowed out across the land that is now under the English Channel.
10,000 – The Flandrian Period - Ice caps melting - reindeer herds roam as vegetation returns and trees begin to grow again. A vast forest mostly of Alder, covered Combe Valley. It is filled with birds and other wildlife. Over the years a layer of peat is laid down.
Stone Age tribes moved into the area, some all the way from Dorset. They bring baskets of flints and sit by the Combe Haven river making arrowheads and hand axes. The Stone Age peoples did not cut down the dense forests which covered the whole of the valley.
6000 - When the Iron Age began and the Iron Age tribes settled and farmed, then tree cutting became an inevitable process, for fires and buildings. Thus the tree cover was removed. Then the rains removed the soil from the slopes, the river changed it course and the current annual winter flood pertained for two thousand years. It has been shown by scientists Smyth & Jennings in their report on the formation of the Combe Valley landscape that the removal of trees was the most fundamental change which enabled the current landscape to look like it does. The river moved in its bed due to alluvial formations. The lower section of the Valley has a estuarine salt content while the upper reaches strata are all fresh water.
300 – Brythonic-speaking Celts of the Belgae lived in the area.
In 300 BCE, long before the coming of the Romans (Emperor Claudius 43 AD), the upslopes of Combe Valley were inhabited by the Brythonic Celts called Belgae who made their weapons from local iron. The area was rich in iron ore. You can see this by looking at an Ordnance Survey map for the words: ‘Pond Bay’ – a dam used for water needed in the iron forging industry. There is one near Buckholt Farm, Sidley and two in Crowhurst. The Iron Age site at Park Farm, Crowhurst also contains Roman pottery remains.
At this spot south of Crowhurst along side the Powdermill Stream, many Stone Age people sat to make tools and weapons.
At the time, this was a stream in dense woodland which Iron Age farmers later cut down.