Swanley Heritage No 1 - Mesolithic Period (10,000BC to 4,000BC) (Update 1 - 1st December 2011)

Mesolithic Period (10,000 BC to 4,000BC)
Near the end of the Palaeolithic Age, about 30,000 years ago, it seems likely that our human forebears first came to what is now Kent. They arrived in small groups and as individuals. The first few walked from  the northern part of what is now France (and from beyond) and settled sporadically in parts of the DV. They moved on from time to time following the animals which they hunted. They were hunters of animals and gatherers of seed, fruit, berries and nuts. They had thought they might go back but life was pleasant, albeit cold, and hunting was good - they stayed when it was warm enough.

Some found caves or dug out shelters: others made branch shelters. At times the cold was intense and from the Swanley hills some of them might have seen to the north, the cliff-like edge of the ice which just about covered the river running from east to west (Thames). At some time they may have retreated from the ice to France but by about 10,000 BC they were back for the last time. Life was subject to climatic warming, the melting ice retreated  northwards, and the valleys to the south (the English Channel) became impassable to any but the bravest. A family group (or tribe by now) stayed (or wer trapped) and had already claimed lands as theirs. It does not seem that the site of their abode was in the area of Swanley but most probably nearer the fresh clean waters of the DV river. Some settled on the slope above but to the south of Lullingstone Castle but this was about 6,000 years ago when settlements may have been well spread about the countryside in Britain. 

The use of stone for implements for all kinds of work was well established  by this time. For example some 20 or so of their kin-folk's leading family were buried within the the huge stone chamber, a longbarrow, at Coldrum not 15 kilometres away to the east of Swanley Hills.

The site was situated not far from the newly cultivated fields on the lower ground below Trottiscliffe. Sometime before the hunter-gatherers had taken up farming and enclosing land. Much of the land was available to the takers but certain areas were common land. It could be that some roamed as far as the Swanley Hills which they may have regarded as their common land.

When attending the burials some of the DV folk probably admired the field system of their neighbours. It seems that these neighbours of the DV people liked funerals because they and others had erected several other dolmens, ie stone structures, along the valley of the Medway, eg Kitts Coty House and its nearby Little Kitts Coty House - the river may have been a good route for raft-transporting the huge Sarcen stones used at Coldrum Longbarrow and elsewhere. However, these may have been as recent as 3000 years BC.