Artefactual remains

Remains from several periods of prehistory have been found around Kew and Richmond. Mesolithic (c.8000 to 4300 BC) tools, including three stone axes, were found near the Gardens between Brentford Dock and the ferry. Major concentrations of Neolithic (4300 to 2700 BC) artefacts have been discovered in Richmond and Brentford. Small Neolithic flints - a flake and a scraper - were found actually within the Gardens.

The Thames's importance and influence continued through the Bronze Age (c.2300-700 BC) and Iron Age (c.700 BC-43 AD) and a multitude of metal artefacts from these periods have been found, almost exclusively in the river itself. Major finds like these come about because early rituals throughout Europe featured the ceremonial depositing of artefacts in rivers, and the Thames was no exception.

Combine those rituals with the fact that the Thames then was an important European trading area, and the result is that a significant proportion of the non-indigenous Bronze and Iron Age metalwork found in Surrey has been found in or by the Thames.

In fact, there is a class of Early Bronze Age axe for which almost all the examples found in Surrey have been found next to the Thames, and one of these axes was found within the parish of Kew.

Back to: Archaeological Background