The erstwhile Bowman’s Lodge Pit and Wansunt Pit were situated either side of Station Road, Dartford, on deposits mapped as belonging to the Orsett Heath/Boyn Hill terrace. They were worked for gravel from ~1900–1950, during which time they were subject to several detailed investigations (Chandler & Leach 1912; Smith & Dewey 1914; Tester 1951). The sequence at both can be summarised as ~15m of gravel (Dartford Heath Gravel: DHG) overlain by a variable depth of silt and clay (Wansunt Loam), reaching a maximum height of ~ 42m above Ordnance Datum (aOD). The Dartford sites thus lie at the same height and on the same terrace as the deposits at Swanscombe ~8km to the east, with which they can be directly correlated. A tributary channel recorded by Dewey (1959) beneath the DHG at Pearson’s Pit is cut to the same level as the Lower Gravel at Swanscombe and correlated with the Phase I deposits (Bridgland 1994). Fauna from the DHG includes interglacial mammalian taxa such as Palaeoloxodon antiquus, Cervus elaphas and Equus ferus (Chandler & Leach 1912) and the distinctive ‘Rhenish’ molluscan suite, which appears in the Lower Thames between Hoxnian Pollen Zones IIIa-IIIb (White et al. 2013) and allows a firm correlation between the DHG and the Phase II Middle Gravel at Swanscombe. The Wansunt Loam is equivalent to the Upper Loams at Swanscombe, where it reaches ~40m aOD (Wenban-Smith et al. 2001), and is therefore correlated with a post-Hoxnian warm phase, i.e. MIS 11a.

Few artefacts have been recovered from the body of the DHG, those that are present being similar to the Middle Gravel material from Swanscombe, but a significant, primary-context assemblage has been recovered from the surface of the DHG and within the Wansunt Loam (Tester 1951, 1975). These are assigned to Roe’s Group VI, subgroup C, with a high frequency of twisted ovates.

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

Chandler, R.H. & Leach, A.L. 1912. On the Dartford Heath Gravel and on a Palaeolithic implement factory. Proceedings of the Geologists' Association 23: 102–114.

Dewey, H., 1959. Palaeolithic deposits of the Thames at Dartford Heath and Swanscombe. Unpublished edited text of Henry Stopes Memorial Lecture, read to the Geologists’ Association [available from their archive on request].

Smith, R. A. & Dewey, H. 1914. The High Terrace of the Thames: report on excavations made on behalf of the British Museum and H.M. Geological Survey in 1913. Archaeologia 65: 187–212.

Tester, P. J. 1951. Palaeolithic flint implements from the Bowman's Lodge Gravel Pit, Dartford Heath. Archaeologia Cantiana 63: 122–134.

Tester, P.J. 1975. Further consideration of the Bowman’s Lodge industry. Archaeologia Cantiana 91: 29–39.

Wenban-Smith, F., Bridgland, D., Parfitt, S., Haggart, A. & Rye, P. 2001. Palaeolithic archaeology at the Swan Valley Community School, Swanscombe, Kent. Proceedings of the Prehistoric Society 67: 219–259.

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.