Meet Wednesday 14th Sept 9.15am B&Q (South) NR4 6FB. Leave 9.30am
Drive (not A11) to Snettterton drive 45mins. Arrive about 10.15am to check out the Javelin Track Day. Spend about 90 mins there; grab a coffee see what’s happening on track and in the Paddock. Then about 11.30-45 off we go to Grimes Graves for Neolithic Knappers.
Set amid the Breckland heath landscape Grime’s Graves is the only Neolithic flint mine open to visitors in Britain. The grassy landscape of over 400 pits was first named Grim’s Graves by the Anglo-Saxons. It was not until one of them was excavated in 1870 that they were identified as flint mines dug over 5,000 years ago.
There is an interpretation display but the main event is underground where there is one ‘mine’ open to visitors. A large pit required the removal of 2,000 tons of chalk in order to reach the valued floorstone seam of black flint. Our visit will involve climbing down substantial steel ladders, once at the bottom the ground is level and the small mining galleries can be seen but not entered. At this point you will be about 9m below ground, but with just a few visitors at a time allowed it is hardly claustrophobic. This is a Neolithic piece of history so very basic, please do not come with expectations of lengthy tunnels or industrial workings. Numbers underground are usually limited so a shift system between mine and interpretation displays may have to take place.
Site access means driving over a cattle grid and parking is on uneven turf so owners of lowered 5’s you have been warned but no problem for standard cars, ormine and it’s a bit lowered. There are loos on site but no café. Normal footwear will be ok. After Grimes Graves we will adjourn to Brown’s café for lunch which is nearby at Mundford.
Re Grimes Graves: Adult £7.00, Seniors £6.30 & Eng. Heritage members free. Postcode IP26 5DE
Finally a drive back to Norwich avoiding the A11 with folk free to peel off for home.
Those joining in let me know. David
- David
- Richard
- Ian
- Mark
- Mick meeting us 10.15 at Snetterton
