265
ON THE CORRELATION OF THE
PREHISTORIC "FLOOR" AT HULLBRIDGE
WITH SIMILAR BEDS ELSEWHERE.
BY S. HAZZLEDINE WARREN, F.G.S.
Being a Morant Club Report presented tu the Essex Field Club on
17th December, 1910.
I.—THE HULLBRIDGE SITE.
THE visit of certain members of the Morant Club to Rayleigh
and Hullbridge on the sixteenth of October last has been
described in the previous paper by Mr. F. W. Reader. I was
fortunate in being a member of that party, and consequently
had an opportunity of examining the prehistoric sites recently
discovered by Mr. Rand, of Rayleigh. The present paper is
concerned with one of these sites only, namely that at
Hullbridge, and with a comparison of this site with similar
ones which have been discovered elsewhere.
A considerable number of worked flints were found on this
site by various members of the expedition. My own "bag"
on this occasion amounted to seventy-two worked flints. These
consisted chiefly of flakes and cores, and did not include any-
thing of a noteworthy character. A large proportion of these
were found in place, in the section of the ''floor" exposed on
the mud banks of the river, and all had undoubtedly come from
that site. The general character of this "floor" has been ad-
mirably described by Mr. Reader, in the paper already referred
to. I need only say here that this pre-historic floor, or working
site, is situated on an ancient surface, now deeply buried beneath
accumulations of tidal silt. It is the actual surface on which
the users of the stone implements lived, although it is now at a
level which is only a very few feet above low-water mark.
The buried surface was seen to occur beneath a bed of peat,
or peaty clay. Mr. Rand reports that he has since found the
stump of a tree, in the natural position of life, on the level of
the peat, but although wood was abundant, we did not see
this on the occasion of our visit. The exposures seen in the
banks of these tidal channels continually vary, according to
the direction of the prevailing wind ; some places, previously
exposed, becoming deeply buried under fresh accumulations
of silt, others, previously hidden, becoming swept clean from all
recently deposited mud.