Eight flint handaxes are known to have been found on Thanet. As yet no flakes or flake-tools of this period have definitely been recovered or recognised.

Efforts will be made to obtain pictures and any other information on Thanet pieces not held by the Trust.

Two handaxes have been found in Ramsgate. The contexts of their discoveries are unknown.

(i) One small (possibly ovate or cordate) handaxe was until recently on view in a Victorian 'Cabinet of Curiosities' displayed at Canterbury's main library. It may have been discovered in the early 20th Century.

NGR 637467 165328 (Ramsgate).

In 1953 an Acheulian handaxe was discovered in a clay deposit on this site. The deposit was 13m wide and passed diagonally across the playing fields at the west of the (now former) school. The handaxe was discovered at 0.85m below the groundsurface, 0.35m deep within the clay.

On the surface of the clay a Prehistoric flint 'floor' was also discovered. This context produced Neolithic scrapers (but they may have been residual in a much later context).

NGR 639569 169066 (approximate).

TSMR 872.
Biggs 1972; Minter and Herbert 1973.

A handaxe from this area appears in a collection displayed at the Tudor House in Margate. Context unknown.

NGR 635546 165406 (area).

An Ovate Acheulian handaxe was discovered on the western side of St.Mildred's Bay in the late 1990's. This now inundated site was once a shallow valley which existed some distance from the ancient coastline. A stream once flowed through this valley. The remains of the stream bed can still be seen today (sands permitting).

NGR 632529 170512 (approximate).

Excavation led by David Perkins, Trust for Thanet Archaeology; (ASW99).

A Twisted Ovate Acheulian handaxe was found amongst a Late Prehistoric 'floor' of laid flints discovered during archaeological excavations at this site.

NGR 637702 168007 (approximate).

Two Acheulian handaxes have been found at the Thanet Reach Business Park site at Westwood.

(i) One was recovered from a spoil heap in the late 1990's. This was a small Pointed handaxe. It had been rediscovered and reworked in a much later Prehistoric period.

NGR 637243 167789 (approximate).

(ii) The other was discovered during a Watching Brief conducted by Emma Boast, Trust for Thanet Archaeology (2000).

This other handaxe was the most recent to be discovered and is also the most important. It is the only example to be certainly recovered from relatively in-situ (ie. undisturbed) deposits. The handaxe came from a thick clay deposit and was spotted in the bucket of a mechanical excavator by its sharp-eyed driver. Much thanks are owed to him.

NGR 637189 167621 (approximate).

Click here if you would like a closer look and a little more information on some of the handaxes featured above.

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