112 THE ESSEX NATURALIST
Two Prehistoric Finds from Chingford
by
I. J. HERRING, Headmaster, Chingford County High School
This note is to put on record two finds from Chingford.
"Thames pick". This pick, of probable mesolithic date, was found by
Colin Lacey in 1954 while working in his father's garden at 137 Friday Hill,
Chingford. Lacey, then a sixth form pupil at Chingford County High School,
is now a Birmingham University geology student, and has deposited his find
on loan to the school. The implement, 6.1 inches long, 2 inches greatest width
and 1.2 inches greatest thickness, has developed a pale ochre patina, except
on part of the butt and back where the blackish flint is unpatinated. (Plate 7).
It is worth noting that there is in the Walthamstow Museum, among the
material collected by school field parties under the direction of Mr. P. J. Speak-
man operating from the Jubilee Retreat on Chingford Plain, another "Thames
Pick", smaller than the one described above.
Neolithic flint axe. This ground and polished flint axe was found in 1948,
approximately 4 feet below ground level during excavations for a block of
shops on the north side of Hatch Lane, Chingford. It is 5.5 inches long, with
a greatest width near the cutting edge of 2.4 inches and a greatest thickness
of 1.5 inches. It has suffered some ancient damage near the cutting edge,
and is of a rich ochreous patina except at the butt where the blackish flint
is visible. (Plate 7).
This axe is owned by Chingford County High School. One recalls that
there is a slightly longer neolithic axe labelled "Chingford, River Lea", in
the Laver Collection of the Colchester Museum.
These two axes therefore belong to a small group, in the middle Lea
valley area, which is an outlier from the Thames valley concentration between
Dagenham and Staines (see map, fig. 2, C. Fox, "The distribution of man
in East Anglia, c. 2300 B.C.—A.D. 50." in P.P.S.E.A. vii. p. 149).
The school is indebted to Mr. E. R. Chandler of Loughton for the
photographs.