Tuesday 25 April 2017

Piltdown




Earlier this month we managed to visit Piltdown, a quiet place.  Down a lane you can find the entrance gates to Markham Manor (my photos above).  To quote from the book reviewed below (p.267):  'There is no regular tourist access to the manor today, but behind the gates, a series of coppiced trees can be seen flanking the long approach to the house, just as they did in the photographs in 1912 and 1913.  Somewhere in the middle distance lies the backfilled gravel pit, once the centre of attention for the world's press.  Next to it a single sandstone monolith stands, forgotten and somewhat forlorn, within the modern hedgerow.  Despite the covering of lichen it is still just possible to read the inscription carved into the face of the stone:

Here in the old river gravel Mr Charles Dawson FSA,
found the fossil skull of Piltdown Man 1912-1913.