The Evolution of an English Town | Page 8

marked in the geological survey maps as covering a space of about two
square miles south of Pickering, but the deposit is probably much larger,
for Dr. Thornton Comber states that the gravel extends all the way to
Riseborough and is found about 6 feet below the surface, everywhere
digging has taken place in that direction. The delta is partly composed
of rounded stones about 2 feet in diameter. These generally belong to
the hard gritstone of the moors through which Newton Dale has been
carved. Dr. Comber also mentioned the discovery of a whinstone from
the great Cleveland Dyke, composed of basaltic rock, that traverses the
hills near Egton and Sleights Moor, two miles above the intake of
Newton Dale at Fen Bogs.
The existence of this gravel as far towards the west as Riseborough,
suggests that the delta is really of much greater magnitude than that
indicated in the survey map. It has also been proved that Newton Dale
ceased its functions as a lake overflow, through the retreat of the
ice-sheet above Eskdale long before the Glacial Period terminated, and
this would suggest an explanation for the layer of Warp (an alluvial
deposit of turbid lake waters) which partially covers the delta. The
fierce torrents that poured into Lake Pickering down the steep gradient
of this canon would require an exit of equal proportions, and it seems
reasonable to suppose that the gorge at Kirkham Abbey was chiefly

worn at the same time as Newton Dale.
[Illustration: Diagrammatic view showing the presumed position of the
ice at the eastern end of the Vale of Pickering during the Lesser Glacial
epoch. The river Derwent is shown overflowing along the edge of the
glacier.]
Another delta was formed by the upper course of the Derwent to which
I have already alluded. In this instance, the water flowed along the edge
of the ice and cut out a shelf on the hill slopes near Hutton Buscel, and
the detritus was carried to the front of the glacier. This deposit
terminates in a crescent-shape and now forms the slightly elevated
ground upon which Wykeham Abbey stands. The Norse word Wyke or
Vik means a creek or bay, and the fact that such a name was given to
this spot would suggest that the Vale was more than marshy in Danish
times, and perhaps it even contained enough water to float shallow
draught boats. Flotmanby is another suggestive name occurring at the
eastern corner of the lake about four miles from Filey. In modern
Danish flotman means a waterman or ferryman, and as there is, and was
then, no river near Flotmanby, there is ground for believing that the
Danes who settled at this spot found it necessary to ferry across the
corner of the lake. Before the Glacial Period, the Vale of Pickering was
beyond doubt from 100-150 feet deeper at the seaward end than at the
present time, and even as far up the Valley as Malton the rock floor
beneath the deposit of Kimeridge clay is below the level of the sea.

CHAPTER IV
The Early Inhabitants of the Forest and Vale of Pickering Almighty
wisdom made the land Subject to man's disturbing hand, And left it all
for him to fill With marks of his ambitious will....
Urgent and masterful ashore, Man dreams and plans, And more and
more, As ages slip away, Earth shows How need by satisfaction grows,
And more and more its patient face Mirrors the driving human race.

_Edward Sandford Martin._
THE NEOLITHIC OR NEW STONE AGE Succeeded the Old Stone
Age and overlapped the Bronze Age.
THE BRONZE AGE Succeeded the New Stone Age and overlapped
the Early Iron Age.
THE EARLY IRON AGE Succeeded the Bronze Age and continued in
Britain until the Roman Invasion in B.C. 54.
_(All these periods overlapped.)_
The Palæolithic men had reached England when it was part of the
continent of Europe, but after the lesser Glacial Period had driven the
hairy savages southwards a slow earth movement produced what is
now the English Channel and Britain was isolated. Gradually the cold
relaxed and vegetation once more became luxuriant, great forests
appeared and England was again joined to the continent. Possibly the
more genial climate which began to prevail in this country and the
northward movement of the reindeer brought the first Neolithic men
into England, and it has been suggested that some of these earlier tribes
whose implements have been discovered in White Park Bay, County
Antrim and the MacArthur Cave, near Oban, form a link between the
Palæolithic and Neolithic people.
The culture of the New Stone Age was a huge advance upon that of the
earlier races, although it is more than probable that the higher
development existed in different parts of the world simultaneously