Rickson’s Pit was located on lateral continuation of the Boyn Hill/Orsett Heath Formation ~1km east of Barnfield Pit. It was worked for sand and gravel in the 1930s, when it was studied by Dewey (1930; 1932), Burchell (1932; 1934) and Chandler (1932), but has since been quarried away. The sequence at Rickson’s Pit was basically a condensed version of that found at Barnfield, notably lacking the developed loams seen at the latter site (Bridgland 1994). Dewey (1932) recorded a basal coarse gravel about 1m thick (Bed a), overlain by a 3m of calcareous sandy gravel with shells (Bed b), 0.7m of even-bedded sand and gravel (Bed c), and 1–2m of current-bedded sand and gravel (d). The fluvial sequence was capped by 1m of hillwash and soil, with Burchell (1934) recording localised soliflucted chalk-slurry (coombe rock) and stony loam in the north face of the quarry. Following White et al. (2013), the Rickson’s Pit deposits can be matched to the depositional phases at Barnfield. The lowest gravel (d) at Rickson’s can be correlated with the Phase I deposits at Barnfield and contains a similar Clactonian industry. The overlying thick shelly gravel (c) contains Theodoxus and Corbicula (Chandler 1932; Dewey 1932), members of the Rhenish molluscan suite that permit correlation with the Phase 2 Lower Middle Gravel at Barnfield (White et al. 2013).

The cultural stratigraphy from Rickson’s Pit is no longer easy to reconstruct. Dewey (1932, 45) reported that well-made pointed handaxes were found immediately above the shelly gravel (c), deemed to belong to ‘early St Acheul’ by Henri Breuil, with a rich ovate-handaxe assemblage, many with twisted edges, coming from the bedded sands and gravels of (a) and (b) (Chandler 1932; Dewey 1932; Burchell 1934). Several mint condition artefacts were specifically noted as coming from clay seams within the current-bedded sands, possibly representing land surfaces. (Dewey 1932). Burchell’s (1932, 1934) observation that both unpainted and patinated artefacts lay in sands and gravel beneath denuded remnants of loam at Rickson’s suggests a situation similar to the top of the Upper Middle Gravel and base of the Upper Loam at Barnfield (Foulds et al. 2025).

While >200 handaxes are recorded from Rickson’s Pit, the current sample in the database focuses on artefacts collected by Chandler and Burchell from strata (b) and (a). It has not been possible to reconstruct a sample from the shelly gravel (c) at Rickson’s. The Marston collection in the British Museum contains 160 handaxes marked as coming from the middle gravel but contains no material from any other context, which is inconsistent with other records. It seems likely that, based on his understanding of the Barnfield sequence and belief that it was the Upper Loams that filled the solution stacks at Rickson’s, Marston has combined material from Beds c, b and an into a single Middle Gravel assemblage.

Bridgland, D.R. 1994. Quaternary of the Thames. London: Chapman and Hall.

Burchell, J.P.T. 1932. The Presidential Address for 1931: early Neanthropic man and his relation to the Ice Age. Proceedings of the Prehistoric Society of East Anglia 6: 253–303.

Burchell, J.P.T. 1934. Fresh facts relating to the Boyn Hill Terrace of the Lower Thames valley. The Antiquaries Journal 14: 163–166.

Chandler, R.H. 1932. Preliminary notice: types of Clactonian implements at Swanscombe. Proceedings of the Prehistoric Society of East Anglia 6: 377–378.

Dewey, H. 1930. Palaeolithic Thames deposits. Proceedings of the Prehistoric Society of East Anglia 6: 146–155.

Dewey, H. 1932. The Palaeolithic deposits of the Lower Thames Valley. The Quarterly Journal of the Geological Society of London 88: 35–56.

Foulds, F., White, M., Rawlinson, A., Shipton, C. & Ashton, N., 2025. A twist in the tail: on the validity and characteristics of the Phase III handaxe assemblage from Barnfield Pit, Swanscombe, UK. Quaternary International 746: 109951.

White, T.S., Preece, R.C. & Whittaker, J.E. 2013. Molluscan and ostracod successions from Dierden’s Pit, Swanscombe: insights into the fluvial history, sea-level record and human occupation of the Hoxnian Thames. Quaternary Science Reviews 70: 73–90.