A HISTORY OF HEREFORDSHIRE even, keen cutting edge ; he made a rough kind of pottery ; he tilled the soil ; he bred cattle and sheep, and threw up extensive earthw^ork inclosures for their defence ; he wove a species of cloth, was expert in hunting and fishing, constructed for the burial of his dead structures which involved great skill and perseverance, and made provision for the requirements of the dead which prove that he had a firm belief in a future state of existence after death. The probability is that our inability to recognize the full standard of Neo- lithic culture is largely due to the fact that many traces of man's handiwork of such a venerable antiquity must necessarily have perished by the hand of time. The remains of Neolithic man in Herefordshire can hardly be described as of great importance. They do not, indeed, add much, if anything, to the sum of the knowledge already obtained from remains in other parts of England, but they are distinctly of value inasmuch as they help to show something of the distribution of Neolithic people in an important district of the kingdom. An interesting group of Neolithic implements of flint, both chipped and ground, has been discovered by Mr. J. E. Ballard in the parish of Ledbury. These implements were obtained at Frith Farm about a mile and a half to the north-east of the town of Ledbury, and they were found to occur mainly over a space about four miles in diameter. Many hundreds of flint chips and flakes were scattered about indiscriminately on the ground, and not arranged in groups as is the case in some districts, especially on the sites of Neolithic dwellings. Whether a prolonged course of agricultural treatment of the soil has had the effect of scattering and disturbing the flints is not quite certain, but it is extremely probable. The most important pieces are two fragments of tough, buff-coloured flint with segments of a highly-ground surface. Both seem to have belonged to one implement, probably a large celt or axe-head, and when this was damaged so as to be no longer of use for its original purpose, the fragments of flint were used up for flakes. All the surfaces of the fractures are appa- rently ancient. Another distinctly interesting specimen is a neatly-chipped flint arrow-head, of leaf-shape, the point of which has unfortunately been fractured somewhat in recent times, perhaps by contact with the plough. When perfect its length was about an inch and a half. Mr. Ballard has obligingly given the present writer an opportunity to examine a selection of the Ledbury flint implements, including : — 1 . A few cores of various kinds of flint, black, grey and brown, some only I in. long, from which flakes of slightly more than half an inch have been struck ; 2. Scrapers | in. to i in. in diameter ; and 3. Several good straight flakes about one and one-eighth of an inch long, triangular in section with prominent ridge down the back, evidently made for a special purpose, also several well-made flakes 2 in. long. It is clear that these fragments of flint were all specially selected for the suitability of their material and brought to this district by Neolithic man or his immediate successors. The presence of cores and waste chips in some numbers is important evidence, pointing, as it unquestionably does, to the local manufacture of implements. 158
