Archaeology finds
Intermittent settlement appears to have continued throughout the Mesolithic period, which gradually ended with the beginning of farming some 6,000 years ago. According to Cecil Curwen [1] in The Archaeology of Sussex, the sandpit near Selmeston Church is ‘perhaps the most important and instructive of all the Mesolithic sites in Sussex, for here were found some of the dwelling pits of Mesolithic man’. Excavations of these pits in 1933 [2] yielded over 6,400 flints, including a large number of ‘pot boilers’. These are stones which were made red hot and dropped into water to heat it, or used for cooking food. It seems that the pit went out of use and was almost filled with drifting sand, when it was reoccupied by some Neolithic people, who left behind a few scraps of pottery of the kind known as Peterborough ware or Neolthic ‘B.
Various items of pottery dating from the Neolithic (New Stone Age) and Bronze and Iron Ages have been found, some of which are on display at the Barbican House Museum in Lewes.
[1] The Archaeology of Sussex, by E. Cecil Curwen (Methuen & Co Ltd 1937)
[2] The Antiquaries Journal April 1934 (Vol. XIV, No.2) – A Late Mesolithic Site at Selmeston, Sussex, by J.G.D. Clark MA, PhD, FSA
[3] Sussex Archaeological Collections (Vol. LXXIX) – Late Bronze Age Ditches at Selmeston, by Eliot Curwen, FSA and E. Cecil Curwen, FSA
See also: The Antiquaries Journal October 1934 (Vol. XIV, No.4) – A Flint Sickle-flake from Selmeston, Sussex, by Eliot Curwen, FSA and E. Cecil Curwen, FSA Sussex Archaeological Collections 123 (1985) – Recent Archaeological Research at Selmeston, East Susssex, by David Ruling et al.
Useful links to find out more
Sussex Archaeological Society (1985) Recent Archaeological Research at Selmeston, East Sussex by David Rudling
Domesday Book entry for Selmeston.
Domesday Book entry for Sidnor.
L. F. Salzman (1922) Sussex Domesday Tenants
See also: The Antiquaries Journal October 1934 (Vol. XIV, No.4) – A Flint Sickle-flake from Selmeston, Sussex, by Eliot Curwen, FSA and E. Cecil Curwen, FSA Sussex Archaeological Collections 123 (1985) – Recent Archaeological Research at Selmeston, East Susssex, by David Ruling et al.