Spalding Gentleman's Society contains a prehistoric tool kit from the North Sea's 'lost Atlantis' Doggerland

A prehistoric tool kit from the North Sea’s ‘lost Atlantis’ forms part of a unique collection in Spalding.

Victorian jeweller and part-time archaeologist Alfred Savin would comb the beaches around Norfolk to find artefacts which had washed up from Doggerland, the submerged land mass which once linked Britain to the continent.

Now in Spalding Gentleman Society museum, this wonderful collection gives an insight into the lives of people who inhabited this ancient lost land.

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This insight is not lost on the society’s first ever Curator of Archaeology, Richard Buck, who has dubbed the collection a ‘tool kit’ from this lost world.

He said: “These people were not cave dwelling barbarians or people without personality. They knew what they were doing and they produced some beautiful pieces of art.

“These people were just like us. They had brains and tools and some way of manufacturing what they needed. These were not ignorant savages.

“This collection shows their creativity and drive to perfect the perfect instrument for a purpose.”

The man who ensured that these tools were not lost to history, Alfred Savin (1860-1948), developed an interest in archaeology and the geology of the North Norfolk area.

He assisted with a geological survey around Cromer in the 1880s and 1890s but built up this amazing collection of fossils and pre-historic tools by walking the beaches close to his home in Cromer.

Mr Buck said: “A lot of Doggerland material was being washed up or embedded in rock.

“Savin could go out and have a good look to see what he could find.”

His beach combing resulted in an impressive collection, and some pieces were referenced by respected Victorian archaeologist Sir John Evans in his book called Ancient Stone Implements of Great Britain.

While some of this collection has been dispersed to museums in Norfolk, Spalding Gentleman’s Society is lucky to have 136 pieces within their cabinets at Broad Street.

Smooth hand axes, knives and arrow heads with barbs at the bottom - which made effective hunting tools - make part of the society’s collection along with Savin’s journal.

Mr Buck said: “They date roughly from the same time period: paleothic to neolithic, right up to the Iron Age.

“Most of the items come from North Norfolk but there are pieces from a site at Kelling where they were making flint.”

Within the society’s collection is a vicious looking item with a sharp point shaped onto a round body which could fit into a hand.

This item could have been used as a scraper.

And it is not just tools for survival and hunting that have been found within this amazing collection.

There is also a small wheel shaped item which is believed to have been used as a loom weight.

But Mr Buck’s favourite piece of the collection is a beautiful hand axe, which had been polished to perfection by our ancestors using sand and whatever abrasive material they had to hand.

He said: “I showed this to Mike Parker Pearson who thought it was from the continent by the look of the stone and it had been brought through Doggerland.

“It is fantastic to have artefacts from Doggerland in Spalding.

“It is a dream come true. We have got an amazing place that no longer exists and we have examples of artefacts that were made there, used there or carried across the land bridge and traded. They have been to Doggerland and had the experience of the place.”