WRETHAM MERE.--Sir Charles F. Bunbury, as early as 1856, noticed some
appearances in a drained _mere_ near Wretham Hall which clearly point
to being the remains of a lake-dwelling. In a communication on the
subject to the Geological Society he says:--
"Wretham Hall, the seat of W. Birch, Esq., is situated about six
miles north of Thetford, in that extensive tract of open sandy
plains which may be called upland in comparison with the fens, but
of very moderate elevation above the sea-level as is shown by the
slow course of the streams flowing from it. About Wretham there
are several _meres_ or small natural sheets of water without any
outlet. The one to which my attention was particularly directed by
Mr. Birch occupied about forty-eight acres, and was situated in a
slight natural depression, the ground sloping gently to it from all
sides. The water has been drawn off by machinery, for the purpose
of making use, as manure, of the black peaty mud which formed the
bottom. This black mud, which is in parts above twenty feet deep, is
nothing else than a soft, rotten, unconsolidated peat; or perhaps
it should be described as vegetable matter in a more complete state
of decomposition than ordinary peat, showing no distinct trace of
vegetable structure. Numerous horns of red deer have been found in
this peaty mud, generally (as I was informed) at 5 or 6 feet below the
surface, seldom deeper; many attached to the skull, others separate,
and with the appearance of having been shed naturally. What is most
remarkable, several of those which were found with the skulls attached
had been _sawn off_ just above the brow antlers--not broken, but cut
off clean and smoothly, evidently by human agency. Some of the horns
are of large size, measuring 9 inches round immediately below the brow
antler....
"Numerous posts of oak-wood, shaped and pointed by human art, were
found standing erect, entirely buried in the peat."
It appears that in 1851 a more remarkable "find" became visible
on draining another _mere_ on this same estate, though the events
remained unrecorded till the years 1858 and 1862. The following
notice is compiled mainly and almost verbatim from Mr. Newton's
observations, which he states were directly obtained from Mr. Birch,
the proprietor:--
In this mere (West Mere) there was ordinarily about four feet of
water, and beneath it, about eight feet of soft black mud, partly
held in suspension and requiring to be removed in scoops. Near the
centre of the _mere_, lying below the black mud, was found a ring or
circular bank of fine white earth, sufficiently solid to allow Mr.
Birch to ride upon it without yielding to the weight of his pony.
Outside this ring the bottom of the _mere_ was so soft and deep as to
be almost impassable until the mud was cleared away. The ring was some
twenty or thirty feet across, a foot wide at the top, and about four
feet in height. Not far from its inner circumference was a circular
hole, about four feet and a half in diameter and some six feet deeper
than the bottom of the _mere_. It was marked out by a circle of stout
stakes or small piles, apparently of alder, and it bore traces of
having been wattled. Between these two circles were the remains of a
wall, about two feet high and consequently lower than the top of the
ring, composed of flints packed together with marl or soft chalk. In
the same place was some earth of a bright blue colour, which, when
dried, crumbled to powder, and was not preserved, though traces were
still to be seen on the bones. In this interspace a still greater
number of bones was found, and also the remains of a much decayed
ladder, the sides and rounds of which were 15 inches apart. The stakes
were about four inches in diameter, very hard, as heavy as stone, and
of a dark grey colour. The fragments of the ladder, on the contrary,
were very rotten and light, but the remains of both, after being kept
some time, exfoliated and crumbled entirely to dust. In and around
this ring there lay a vast number of bones, of which no small portion
were the upper parts of the skulls of _Bos longifrons_, with the horn
cores attached, and many antlers of the red deer, either entire or in
fragments. All the former, excepting one unusually large example, had
a fracture the size of half-a-crown in the forehead (Babington). Of
the deer's antlers, some have certainly been shed in the due course of
nature; but others, on the contrary, have been separated from the head
by sawing. Of the other bones found in West Mere, and I am told there
were hundreds of them, most of the larger ones have been fractured at
one or other extremity, doubtless in order to extract the marrow they
contained. Another bone, and, as far as I can make out, the only one
found which presents this peculiarity, has been polished on one side;
but the reason why is not very obvious, unless it has served, as I
before suggested in the case of a similar specimen, for a skate. I
must add that no weapons or implements of metal which can be referred
to a period at all remote were brought to light in this or any of
the adjoining _meres_, but a great number of flint discs were found,
which, according to the description I have received (for unfortunately
none of them seem to have been preserved), must have closely resembled
those known to the Danish antiquaries as "Sling-Stones," from the
probable use made of them. (B. 46, p. 17.)
BARTON MERE.--In 1869 the Rev. Harry Jones communicated a paper to the
Suffolk Institute of Archæology and Natural History "on the discovery
of some supposed vestiges of a pile-dwelling in Barton Mere, near Bury
St. Edmund's," of which the following is an abstract:--
Barton Mere is situated in a natural depression, about four miles east
of Bury St. Edmund's, and is mainly supplied by springs, but at some
seasons water flows into it from the high land on the south, west,
and north. When full it consists of about ten acres, and averages 7
feet in depth. On the north side of the _mere_ there is a marly chalk,
which, indeed, forms the main bottom of the _mere_, being overlaid
with a dark clay deposit from 1 to 5 feet deep. The bottom layer of
this deposit consists of a peaty coloured clay, so tenacious as to
keep its shape upon the potter's wheel. Most of the bones and some
fragments of pottery were found in this lower layer, which varies in
thickness from a few inches to about a foot and a half. The _mere_ is
subject to occasional droughts. It has been dry at least four times in
the last forty years. About thirty-eight years ago (1830), the _mere_
being then dry, his grandfather, Mr. Quayle, who lived at Barton Mere,
dug out a quantity of stuff for the purpose of laying it on the land.
His digging resulted in a hole, which on two succeeding occasions when
the water was low, saved enough to keep some of the fish alive, and
provide a pond for the cattle. Bones and horns of deer, and several
spear-heads and rings of bronze, were reported to have been found
amidst six or seven stakes of wood _sticking up out of the bottom and
about as thick as the thin part of a man's leg_.
The excavations conducted by Mr. Jones in 1867 were made by digging
several holes about three feet square. In the first two holes nothing
was found, but in the third an ox skull, broken bones, portions of
pointed implements of bone, and a bronze socketed spear-head were
disinterred. The latter, which was only 18 inches below the surface
and above the peaty clay, measured 13 inches long and two inches at
its widest part. The bones were of _Bos longifrons_, stag, pig, sheep
or goat, large dog or wolf, urus (_Bos primigenius_), and hare. These
were all in the peaty stratum. Beside, and along with the bones, were
found two or three flint flakes, cores, and rude flint implements.
There were several pieces of sandstone, burnt, with the mark of fire
plainly upon them, and divers calcined flints. Also a fragment of a
thin hand-made vessel. Besides the bones were several stags' antlers,
one or two of which were gnawed, probably by dogs, and another had
marks of some small-toothed animal, such as a rat. Others were cut by
human hands. One antler had a hole rudely worked in it at its broadest
part. There were also divers horns of the _Bos longifrons_, and,
curiously enough, one of the vertebræ of a Saurian. The latter was a
short distance off from the chief "find," and it was suggested that it
might have been used as a hammer by some of the natives who brought it
to the spot.
The portion of the "find" which caused most conjecture was, however,
a fabric of stake and wattle. "I found one stake 2½ inches thick,
and 2 feet long, lying close over the spot where we found most of the
bones, but the fabric to which I now allude occurred some twenty-eight
inches below the surface of the deepest part of the _mere_. The soil
in the neighbourhood of it had been disturbed, so I took a spud and
trowel and worked the thing out with my own hand. It resulted in an
oval or egg-shaped structure of wattle, 5 feet 7 inches long, and 3
feet 10 inches wide. There were 14 uprights, varying from 2 to 2¾
inches in thickness, at nearly equal distances apart. Twigs and sticks
were worked in these like the side of a very rough basket. At first I
thought it might have been a sunken coracle, but on scooping out the
clay with which it was filled, I found that the wattle ceased about 14
inches down, and that the uprights were merely stakes, from 21 to 27
inches long, driven originally into the chalk marl. The bottom of this
fabric was filled with broken flints which were also found outside
the lower part of the uprights and between them. The flints must have
been put in, the points and edges of the points of the stakes being so
sharp and clean that they could not have been driven through the bed
of flints."
"The top of the wattle was on the level of the chalk marl, on which
most of the bones, fragments of pottery, etc., were strewn, and which
had been covered over to a depth of from 2 to 4½ feet of dark clay.
No more stakes were found, but there occurred divers holes in the
chalk marl, some of them nearly in line, in which we could not help
thinking they might have once stood. Yet we found no remains of wood
in these holes." (B. 161, p. 31.)
Professor Boyd Dawkins, under the heading "Habitations in Britain in
the Bronze Age," writes as follows:--
"Sometimes, for the sake of protection, houses were built upon piles
driven into a morass or bottom of a lake, as for example in Barton
Mere, near Bury St. Edmund's, where bronze spear-heads have been
discovered, one 13 inches long, among piles and large blocks of stone,
as in some of the lakes in Switzerland. Along with them were vast
quantities of the broken bones of the stag, roe, wild boar, and hare,
to which must also be added the urus, an animal proved to be wild by
its large bones, with strongly-marked ridges for the attachment of
muscles. The inhabitants also fed upon domestic animals--the horse,
short-horned ox, and domestic hog, and in all probability the dog,
the bones of the last-named animal being in the same fractured state
as those of the rest. Fragments of pottery were also found. The
accumulation may be inferred to belong to the late, rather than the
early, Bronze Age, from the discovery of a socketed spear-head. This
discovery is of considerable zoological value, since it proves that
the urus was living in Britain in a wild state as late as the Bronze
Age. It must, however, have been very rare, since this is the only
case of its occurrence at this period in Britain with which I am
acquainted." ("Early Man in Britain," p. 352.)