March issue - Magazine - Page 47
Glenside
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LOCAL INTEREST
The Bytham River
A mighty prehistoric river once flowed across the Glenside area
as amateur historian Ralph Bradley explains
The Bytham River was a huge ancient river that flowed
across central and eastern England a very long time ago. It
existed during a period called the Pleistocene Epoch,
which was an ice age time lasting from 2.58 million to
11,700 years ago.
Imagine a river so big that its waters were originally
fed from springs in Worcestershire, Warwickshire,
Leicestershire, Oxfordshire and Derbyshire. It flowed all
the way eastward across East Anglia before emptying into
the North Sea. It is considered by some to be one of the
most important rivers in ancient Britain, and much larger
than many rivers we see today.
The river took its name from Castle Bytham, where
scientists from the British Geological Survey discovered
and conducted studies of a bed of sand and gravel
sediments in local quarries they surmised had been left
behind by a significant flow of ancient water. They
believed this powerful watercourse was completely
destroyed by massive sheets of ice during what has been
dubbed the Anglian Glaciation about 450,000 years ago,
one of many glaciations that took place in the Pleistocene
period, but evidence of the river and early human
habitation beside it remains.
Where Did the River Come From?
The Bytham River is thought to have risen somewhere
south of where the town of Stratford-upon-Avon is today.
From there it flowed north-east towards the coast. During
those ancient times, much of the east coast of England was
actually connected to northern France, Belgium, the
Netherlands and north Germany by a wide strip of land that
has been given the name of Doggerland. This is now
submerged under the North Sea, with Dogger Bank marking
one of the higher points of the now disappeared land bridge.
The Bytham Rover mouth, or delta, was probably
somewhere in Norfolk, between modern-day Happisburgh
(pronounced Haysborough) north of Norwich and Norton
Subcourse south of Norwich. This would have been
beyond the edge of the land bridge.
Other big rivers, including the famous Rhine and
Thames, also flowed north in this area. These rivers
emptied into a large lake that formed right at the edge of
the advancing glacial ice sheet, roughly level with the
present-day Wash.
Life Along the Ancient River
As the Bytham River flowed, especially when it slowed
down near places such as Warren Hill in Norfolk, it
deposited lots of sand and mud. These materials, called
fluvial sediments, built up on the edge of a huge bay that
faced north.
Sites such as Norton Subcourse and nearby Pakefield
in Suffolk are very important places for researchers. They
tell us a lot about what Britain was like back then. This
part of East Anglia was a rich, fertile plain where the river
met the sea, full of plant and animal life.
Evidence indicates that human populations,
specifically Homo heidelbergensis, an ancestor of the
Neanderthals, lived and travelled along the valley of the
ancient Bytham River until at least around 450,000 years
ago and likely much earlier, between 700,000 and 500,000
years ago.
Evidence of Early Human Presence
Over 14 significant archaeological sites have been discovered
along the route of this lost river, including High Lodge
(Mildenhall), Warren Hill, and West Dereham in Norfolk.
These Homo heidelbergensis humans created Lower
Palaeolithic stone tools, specifically handaxes that have been
found. At Beeches Pit, near Icklingham in West Suffolk,
archaeologists have found evidence of dwellings and tools
dating to this early period, specifically the warm period
following the glacial retreat roughly 420,000 years ago.
These humans thrived in an environment with a
climate similar to modern-day southern Scandinavia,
adapting to cold winters without the use of fire at some
earlier sites.
Significance of the Bytham River
The existence of the Bytham River is disputed by some
scientists, who say that it was not one but two rivers, one
based on the Soar and Wreake Rivers near Leicester and
one on the Trent. Most, though, believe it was one
continuous river and a major, if not the most important,
migration route for human colonisation of Britain from
Europe, Africa and even possibly Asia.
Many of these early humans’ artifacts are preserved in
the sand and gravel deposits that run below later glacial
deposits, marking the period before the Anglian glaciation
which destroyed the river. Without these deposits, much of
the evidence of Homo heidelbergensis may have
disappeared completely.
The earliest evidence of humans in Britain dates back
900,000-950,000 years ago, based on flint tools and
footprints found at Happisburgh, Norfolk. Those were
Homo heidelbergensis. The land connection to mainland
Europe that brought them here existed until roughly 9,000
years ago. Modern-day Homo sapiens didn’t appear in
Britain until 40,000 years ago.
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