New Bricks and Old Bones in Portslade

Meeting Point
Portslade Railway Station , Portland Road , Hove, Brighton & Hove, East Sussex, BN3 5SG

Description
The latter half of the 19th century saw a big boom in building across the Sussex Coastal Plain and the landscape of Portslade was transformed into one of large brick pits dug to extract clay and sand for the booming house construction industry. These sediments, being up to 250,000 years old contained the bones of ice age mammals including horse, mammoth and woolly rhinoceros and they produced the earliest find of a stone tool in the 1870’s. But amongst the finds from the Portslade brick pit on Victoria Road was a collection of bear bones which now form part of the Natural History Museum of London’s Collection. The species and condition are completely at odds with what we would expect from such a date in Southern Britain. They therefore represent a mystery and, potentially, a fraud. Join Dr Matt Pope on an exploration of Portslade Ice Age heritage and industrial landscape.

Opening Times

• Friday 12 September: 1100 - 1200

Additional information
The tour will last approx. 1 hour.

Directions
Map link.

Organised by
Dr Matt Pope and The Regency Town House
 
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