Grimes Graves

After the rather unfullfilling visit to Stow, I set off for the nearest castle on my road map. However, on the way up there I was diverted into a wonderful stone age quarry of flint known today as Grimes Graves. It must have been quite an undertaking in its time. They've found over 400 shafts so far, where people worked deep into the ground to get at the valuable flintstones. You can even go down a 30 foot ladder into one of these shafts, the only one open of its type in England.

All pics here.

It looks so innocent on the surface.


Then you have to climb 30 feet (9 meters) down there. In a hard hat.


You'll find a small, circular room with lots of smaller shafts spreading out into the darkness.


Flint, wonderful flint.


Then you climb back up again.


An arial photo gives you a good impression of what went on here thousands of years ago.


I took this photo of a... uhm... caterpillary sumfin', on my way back to the car. It looked so cute and fluffy as it crawled across the grass, minding its own business.