West Tilbury - Archaeology

Archaeology

The 30 metre gravel terrace within the parish produces numerous examples of pointed handaxes of the Lower Palaeolithic (Old Stone Age); some evidence of Mousterian (Neanderthal) tools has been found close to the village centre. A massive presence of post-glacial peoples Maglemosian along the northern stream valley abutting Mucking parish is indicated by the finding of flint production-cores and blades, together with the characteristic tranchet axes, adzes and flint picks ('Thames Picks')of Mesolithic hunter-gatherers. Occupation continued through the Neolithic, doubtless closely associated with the nearby Orsett causewayed enclosure. These early farmers appear to have been more prevalent upon the upper slopes (gravels) above the aforesaid valley than their Middle Stone Age predecessors. A continuity of field systems throughout the Bronze and Iron Ages is apparent. During 2010, excavations north of Mill House uncovered a Later Bronze Age burial mound (barrow) and other pre-Roman features.

A Claudian period rectangular defensive enclosure on Gun Hill was excavated in the late 1960s (finds at Thurrock Museum). A most important migration period (c.600 AD) grubenhaus - a sunken floored hut - was examined, also in the late 1960s during gravel extraction. It indicates the early Anglo-Saxonisation of the area from c.450 AD onward and is similar to the numerous other grubenhauser 2 kilometers away on the Mucking hilltop.

In 2000, a twisted gold wire torc with decorated buffer finials, probably of 1st century B.C. date, was discovered by an agricultrual worker here. It was illegally disposed of and is now lost to the archaeological record, but photos taken at the time of finding indicate it was similar to torc-types from Waldalgesheim in the Rhineland.