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The Mesolithic, or Middle Stone Age, stretched from very roughly from 10,000 to 3,500 BC (differing periods for differing areas), this era saw much activity on our surrounding moors. The people of this culture were an important link between distant pre-history and mans progression towards modernity.
The ice-cap had retreated and, some 8,000 years ago, the landscape of our area was very slowly beginning to take on a semblance of its modern form. The glaciers have left their mark in the shape of our river valleys, grit-stone outcrops and undulating landscape that led the Romans to call our area "the land of the breast-shaped hills". Occasionally a distinct reminder of the ice-cap period occurs, such is the meltwater overflow at Briercliffe (SD 875 353), when viewed from the valleys this notch is highly visible on the skyline. Forming a vee in the ridge of Kingcliffe at Lane Bottom the overflow was formed when the huge lake area that covered the Burnley Basin burst through Walverden and into the Pendle Water valley. Cliviger Gorge lies to the north of the ancient burial mounds at Everage Clough (SD 850 300) (on the south-eastern rim of the Burnley Basin) and is another fine example of a glacial, or meltwater, outspill.
Amongst the local Pennine Drift material left behind by the ice flows are outcrops of Northern Drift which is a reddish brown, slightly calcareous, material. When found in 'sandy' patches this material was known as marl. During the Medieval period landowners in this area instructed their tenant farmers to 'marl' their fields as a means of improving the heavy soils. Many small marl pits are scattered around the countryside, in the 18th and 19th centuries these became known as 'penny holes' because this was the payment a labourer received for digging the pit. A large marl pit existed in Foulridge (SD 878 423), at the eastern end of what is now the Slipper Hill reservoir, at the spot called (appropriately) Sandhole. Many farms throughout the north have fields named for their sand pits such as The Marled Earth etc.
The ice also left visible deposits on the landscape, these were small hillocks of glacial till known as drumlins, from the Celtic meaning of 'ridge'. Ranging in size these hillocks can reach 500 feet in height, the smaller ones are often mistaken for burial barrows. The best place I know for seeing examples of Drumlins is the small valley (SD 855 435) behind what was the Greystones Inn on the Blacko to Gisburn Road. A superb range of larger drumlins can be seen to the north of the town of Barnoldswick, these run roughly from eastings SD 830 to 910.
The upland areas of the Pendle and Bowland Forests also have occasional outcrops of glacial-erratic limestone. The largest deposits of this are to be found in the Clitheroe area, where it is still extensively quarried, a smaller deposit, in the form of limestone 'pebbles', occurs at Briercliffe, to the north of Burnley. Here the local people washed the stone out of the upper strata by means of 'hushing' whereby streams were diverted to wash away the top soil, exposing the lime rocks. In the 18th and 19th centuries an area from the top of Thursden Valley (SD 905 355) down into the hamlet of Lane Bottom was heavily worked. The limestone was used in a variety of ways such as a soil improvement, for making building mortar and plaster and also for making whitewash and chemical processes. Therefore the stone had a definite value, land sales and exchange surrenders were subject to the retention of the hushings. Unfortunately the Thursden Scarrs, as the hushings were known, left the effected land in very poor condition, some fields still resemble moonscapes to this day.
In the later 20th century a glacial erratic boulder was displayed in the grounds of Towneley Hall, Burnley. The boulder was around 5 feet in diameter and resembled a giant football. The stone had been 'recovered' from a field near to the village of Higham, from memory I think that it was of a volcanic rock type, probably from the Lake District. Unfortunately the removal from its original site meant that its original purpose would never be known. The stone would have been placed in its original position at Higham to serve a specific purpose for the local inhabitants.
The high-lands above Wycoller, and in the Briercliffe and Extwistle areas, have been a rich source of evidence that Mesolithic people hunted and lived in this landscape leaving their tools and weapons in the form of small flint blades known as pygmy flints. These artefacts were mainly used to make hunting spears and arrows and have been found on all the Pennine moorlands, fine examples coming from the Newchurch in Pendle area and Pendle Hill. Other evidence of these people has been destroyed in the highland areas by the highly acidic peat deposits which formed from 200 to 300 metres above sea level. These deposits of slowly decomposing organic material deepened from late prehistoric times as the climate became colder and wetter.
Archaeologists use the varying design of flint artefacts to date sites, chert (a type of flint) and flint tools of the Mesolithic era were very small (microliths), the arrowheads were narrow. Gradually the arrowheads became wider and longer, by the late Neolithic age they had evolved into broad weapons with distinct barbs.
Three distinct, but inter-related, cultures appear to have made up the peoples of the Mesolithic. The Maglemose from Scandinavia, the Scottish Settlers and the Tardenoisians from north-east France. It is this latter group, or at least people of their general culture, who seem to have been most active in our area. These hunters had a preference for fishing, where they lived near the coast or fresh water. In the inland areas their hunting priorities would be red deer, wild ox, roe deer and the wild pig.
The people of this period left behind few reminders of their existence, apart from a huge number of their flint tools. A scattering of Mesolithic dwellings have been identified, however, these are the oldest surviving artificial dwellings in Britain. In Selmeston, Sussex, Farnham in Surrey and Abinger, also in Surrey, camp sites of the Mesolithic period have been identified. These take the form of pits measuring 14 feet by 10 feet and about 3 feet in depth; post holes indicate that the dwellings could have had a brushwood roof. The pits were divided into three areas, one for cooking, one for sleeping and the other for general activities. This system can be followed down through the succeeding ages. Other examples of these camps exist in the south, they always feature masses of flint microliths, always sited near springs, and were occupied around the 5000 BC period. It is not unreasonable to assume that our local Mesolithic groups on Boulsworth Hill, the Newchurch-in-Pendle Ridge, Water Meetings at Barrowford and Pendle Hill (to name but a few) lived in camps such as those described.
Starr Carr, near Scarborough in Yorkshire, is another important Mesolithic site dating from around 7400BC, the finds from which have been spread around various museums. One of these finds was a roll of birch bark, this contained a sticky substance used by the craftsmen as glue. This enabled them to firmly fix their flints into wooden shafts and to form composite tools and weapons by fixing smaller flakes together. No discernible examples of Mesolithic artwork have been found, unlike their Palaeolithic predecessors, leading experts to assume that they were a more practical people, leaning more to craftsmanship than the arts. New tools had been developed, probably out of necessity to support the growing population; Mesolithic man had the use of fish-spears, harpoons, sledges, canoes and, possibly the most important of all - the newly acquired bow and arrow.
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