early history




The earliest find from the parish is a Palaeolithic (see below)flint handaxe . Flint tools were used throughout the prehistoric period and although their presence does not necessarily indicate occupation in an area it does mean there was human activity nearby. Several tools from the Mesolithic (see below)period have also been found.


A Mesolithic blade, flint tools and a flint core have been recovered from sites where there is more activity in later periods. Often evidence for activity in the Mesolithic is hard to find, as people were not living in permanent settlements but temporary camps. Comparatively, Neolithic(see below) hand axes are relatively common finds in Norfolk. Several Neolithic flint axeheads have been found at Walsingham.


A possible hoard of four axeheads was found in one location. In the Bronze Age people began to make tools out of copper alloy. Some of these tools have been found at Walsingham. A man walking his dog (Egmere) found a Bronze Age copper alloy knife. A Late Bronze Age axehead has also been found.


Some reports suggest that a hoard of Late Bronze Age copper alloy socketed axeheads was found in Walsingham chapel. They may have been moved into the building after being found elsewhere. The earliest sites recorded also date to the Bronze Age. Several possible Bronze Age barrows have been identified.


Ploughing has destroyed several of these burial mounds. All that now remains of them are cropmarks of the ring ditch that originally surrounded the mound. These ring ditches can be identified from aerial photographs. There is also evidence for activity in the Iron Age.


Although no monuments have been identified several Iron Age coins have been found. These include an Iron Age fake gold coin. Many Iron Age objects have also been found on a later Roman temple site. Their presence there may suggest that the temple was built on an earlier Iron Age religious site. An the suggestion is that the saxon cremations were located at the same site. Which sugest that the 'village' was a centre of religious activity for far longer than is usually thought.






Mesolithic - Middle Stone Age, period in human development that involved the gradual domestication of plants and animals and the formation of settled communities at various times and places. Characteristic of the period were hunting and fishing settlements along rivers and on lake shores, where fish and mollusks were abundant. Pottery and the use of the bow developed (around 8000-3000BC)


Neolithic - Late stone age that used stone tools though these tools tended to be more complex and refined, and people were beginning to explore metals. Iy was a transition from hunting and gathering culture to settled farming. This allowed people to create permanent towns and villages, and it paved the way to a more complex culture. The idea of private or personal property and land ownership began to be more widespread during the Neolithic period, and people also started to accumulate artifacts and objects which might not have an immediate use or value. The concept of money began to emerge, and some societies unfortunately started keeping slaves as well, as cultural roles began to emerge for various people in society.


Bronze age -considered to have been the period from around 2100 to 750 BC. Migration brought new people to the islands from the continent




nb - work is ongoing on this subject