THIS IS FINDON — www.findonvillage.com Created by Valerie Martin, contains scenes from her home village of Findon, West Sussex, U.K.

THE LITTLE CISSBURY MINER

Copyright Valerie Martin 2002

First published in the Findon News, August 2002.

In March 2000 concern was expressed following a number of trees being felled on Cissbury Ring in the area of the ancient Neolithic flint mines dating from 4,000-1,850 BC. The National Trust warden in charge of the shrub management project explained at the time that roots of the some of the larger trees were beginning to threaten the flint mines. The offending trees were only being removed to stop the mines being disturbed and valuable archæological evidence being lost for all time.

Every summer walkers, tourists and bikers descend on the Cissbury area to look at the views over Findon and surrounding district. Surprisingly, few know that the huge mound was once an industrial flint site and could be said to have housed an axe factory. Cissbury is literally pitted with Neolithic flint mines.

I will now attempt to unravel a 4,000 year old mining tragedy on the hillside of Cissbury Ring.

The reason why a lone diminutive woman of about twenty years old entered the gloomy shaft of a flint mine on Cissbury in Neolithic days will never be known. The date was perhaps 2,000 BC. What happened to her that day can only be surmised. The climate was warmer and wetter than today and the valley where Findon is situated may have contained springs.

She made her way to the mines, the ground around her was littered with flints and in the distance a grey multitude of gulls wheeled and cried. After lighting a "torch" she held it in her left hand and descended into the gloom as she climbed down into one of the many flint mines.

It could be conjectured that she had returned to retrieve a favourite implement, perhaps a red deer antler pick or an ox shoulder blade shovel. She may have suddenly realized it was mislaid and perhaps wanted to recover the mining tool before one of her companions commandeered it. Or she may have entered the tunnel through mere curiosity. The reason for her lonely descent was her demise. Whatever she desired drove her on and she was soon at the bottom of the shaft some 15 ft. down.

The miners had excavated a honeycomb of four galleries in this particular area and they radiated over a distance of some 20 ft. and she entered an underground gallery to the west of the shaft.  She shuffled along with her a torch still gripped in her left hand.

There was a rumbling sound above and the sound of chalk shifting. A sporadic singing grind came from the rocks. Suddenly she felt a shower of debris on her face. She peered forward, startled. There was a fall of earth and rubble descended on her from the roof of the gallery. She panicked like a cornered hare and was trapped, now laying on her left side with debris covering her. Streaks of blood covered her face. Her collar-bone was smashed and her righthand driven to her chest. The tunnel collapsed and crushed her head. No one heard the terrified groans as the chalk and flints covered her. Fatigue left her as her strength vanished in the darkness as she was crushed alive.

Much later her fellow flint miners discovered the caved in gallery and because of the massive fall they decided to abandon it and continued to work elsewhere. The body lay in its makeshift grave for hundreds of years and hundreds more.

It was 7 p.m. on a Wednesday evening in May 1953 and archæologists were working on the Cissbury hillside. They were John Pull, John Lucas and a lady who had joined the society only the day before. She did not know what an exciting evening she was in for. They were attempting to gently clear away the chalk at the entrance of the gallery when a surprising discovery was made. John Lucas lifted a handful of earth and there before his eyes were bones. At first the group thought they were ox bones but then decided that the gruesome remains must be that of a human foot. (The ox bone was subsequently confirmed to be a human shin bone).

The explorers uncovered as much as possible of a skeleton’s legs and lower part of the body. Without disturbing the position of the bones, they located the skull. Altogether a skull, thigh, pelvis, ribs, vertebrae, kneecap and broken leg bone came to light following further excavations – all trapped under blocks of chalk, close to the remnants of some kind of torch. The teeth set in a large section of the lower jaw showed no sign of decay.

The archæologists assumed they had found the bones of a man trapped in the mines as a result of an underground disaster. It was not to be announced for many months that the remains were that of a 5 ft. 1 in. tall Neolithic woman who had entered the mine with her flickering primitive torch. Other finds rather strangely included a small carved ivory whale.

On Friday 5th June 1953 the bones were unceremoniously recovered from Cissbury. They were hauled out into the daylight at the top of the mine shaft in a bucket that normally accommodated the waste excavated chalk. Each find was wrapped in newspaper and packed in a large wooden box, with more newspaper, ready to make the last journey down the slope. The operation took about two hours in all. The skull was carried in the bucket.

It was the final descent down the hillside for the little Cissbury flint miner.

In 1954 the BBC briefly interviewed John Pull on the opening of a flint mine.

Jumping five years, to 1959, it is interesting to report that the Fire Brigades from Worthing, Lancing, East Preston, Findon and Horsham, spent more than twelve hours dealing with a fire on Cissbury Ring.   I think it must have been a rare sight with all of those fire engines in attendance and goodness knows how many firefighters..

The above is a bygone photograph of Cissbury Ring .... taken from the car park on the north side of the Ring.   This looks like 1960s vintage to me..... so this would have been a few years after the discovery of the little Cissbury miner.  Note that the paths climbing to the summit are in different locations to today's steps.

Let us jump a few more years.   What do you make of this one?  The press reported that the Worthing police had put on record a curious sighting in Findon in March 1985.  The police Incident Book recorded —

Were you that man....... I think it is time to own up!

Continue if you would like to read  Motorbikes on Cissbury.

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