Evidence of Cleethorpes' Earliest Settlers

Braving a bitterly cold and rainy Saturday morning, twenty or so Friends of Cleethorpes Heritage met for a guided walk on the Cleethorpes foreshore on 27th February 2016. The purpose was to explore a 4000-year-old prehistoric landscape exposed by retreating tides and eroding peat shelves.  The event was organised by FOCH and conducted by Andy Sherman and Megan Clement of CITIZAN, a coastal community archaeology project which has shed new light on the earliest Cleethorpes inhabitants. 

 Amongst the boggy mud, the remains of 4000-year old tree roots and fallen trees could be seen quite clearly, but perhaps the most exciting find has been the trackway (pictured right) laid down by prehistoric people

when the river was much narrower and the foreshore was probably marsh land.  A layer of peat has done a fine job in preserving the worked wood, even down to cut marks and manmade holes. Andy explained that they hope to uncover more of the trackway and possibly find more evidence of its use. It is certainly a robust structure and was possibly used for some sort of transportation.  Andy also went on to say that peat bogs had a great way of encapsulating prehistoric footprints, these being identifiable by the spread of the toes as early man's feet had not yet been enclosed in shoes!

 Thank you to Andy and Megan for what was a really interesting and fascinating guided walk about a relatively unknown piece of Cleethorpes history.

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