Plymouth's Prehistoric Past

Last month, I wrote about Plymouth's first car and this month I'm travelling even further back in time with a story about some of the area's earliest creatures and also the story of one of Plymouth's earliest men, dating back approximately 140,000 years.
It's hard to imagine that the area today known as Stonehouse once had prehistoric animals roaming across it. Deep beneath the streets of Stonehouse lie ancient caverns. A story in the Evening Herald of the 9th November, 1960 carried a report about the prehistoric caverns at Stonehouse. It read:
'Stonehouse's prehistoric limestone caverns, discovered in the 18th century and since lost to modern knowledge have, it is believed, been rediscovered by builders excavating foundations for a new warehouse in George Street. Directing a pneumatic drill into limestone boulders, a workman found the rock giving way to expose a 10ft shaft with two long fissures squeezing from it. Remains of prehistoric rhinoceroses, horses, oxen, deer and other animals were once found in the caverns but were destroyed when the Athenaeum was blitzed in the last war.'
I haven't been able to find any follow-up to this article but it's amazing that all this probably still exists beneath the streets of Stonehouse and it's such a shame that the remains found in the 1700s were destroyed in the war.

 

The story of Cattedown Man is well-known and his remains were discovered in limestone caves in the Cattedown area of the city in 1887. Excavated by local historian and naturalist, R N Worth, the finds were meticulously recorded and are considered to be one of the most important discoveries ever documented regarding the history of Homo Sapiens in Europe.
With Cattedown Man were the bones of 15 early humans together with the remains of woolly rhinoceros, woolly mammoth, deer and lion dating from the ice age. The remains are approximately 140,000 years old and are the oldest human remains discovered in the British Isles.
Other caves within Plymouth, containing ancient bones, have been discovered in the 125 years since the discovery of Cattedown Man. Prehistoric remains have been found in Ernesettle Woods, at Mutley and Keyham as well as at Stonehouse.

 

The surviving remains found at Cattedown are kept at the city museum in the city.
Fossil remains were also discovered at caves at Oreston but were never documented, although they are referred to in several scientific papers. The remains, incredibly, were thrown away as being of no great importance and because they 'contradicted the Biblical Account of Human origins'.
It's amazing what lies beneath our feet but also incredible that very little of this history ever seems to be mentioned. I certainly haven't read anything at all about the Stonehouse Caverns in the last 40 years.
The location of the Cattedown caverns is meant to be a secret, for fear of fossil hunters etc, but it's well-known that they are located close to the fuel depot there. It would be incredible to be able to visit them and it seems a shame that the area is off-limits to local residents.
When you think of prehistoric animals such as woolly mammoths, you imagine that they once inhabited areas such as Siberia or North America. It's certainly incredible that they once walked very close to where many of us are now sat reading this month's blog!