"What happened here?" asked my husband as
soon as he got out of the car and had a look around. "Looks like a Swiss
Cheese!"
And right
he was, the pockmarked landscape at Grime's Graves
really resembles an Emmental cheese with all those holes in the ground.
Exactly
those holes were what we had come for. The shape of this strange landscape is
nothing that has grown naturally and all those holes and hills are manmade –
about 5000 years ago, the oldest ones probably about 3000 BC. Back in Anglo-Saxon
times they must have thought that they were looking at ancient burial mounts
and so they named the place after the pagan god of the underworld "Grim"
(also known as Woden), which brought the site the nickname "Devil's
holes". It took until the late 19th century that one of these
holes was excavated and people realised what they really were – flint mines
that date back to the Neolithic Age.
Once my
husband found out that I had made him to drive 1 ½ hours just to take a walk in
scenery that resembles the moon (just in green, very green!) and to see an old
mineshaft he wasn't very amused. "You've just got to be kidding!" was
his remark and he looked as if he'd loved to send me straight to the
aforementioned pagan god. He should have known better …
Nevertheless,
we walked up to the small visitor centre and found out that there was no
admission fee to the grounds but that the entrance to the mineshaft would cost £7.50
for a family ticket. We had our two little daughters, aged 5 and 7, with us and
if you are travelling with small children please bear in mind that the entrance
to the shaft for children under 5 is not permitted.
Next to
the small reception/shop is a museum room with some displays of findings from
the area. You can see what the flint was used for; there are some examples of clothing
and items of daily use as they would have looked like during Neolithic times
and some information on how the flint was excavated. All in all this is a very small
exhibition and it won't take more than a few minutes to see everything.
The actual
mine, the only one of the more than 300 that has been fully excavated and restored,
is located just a few metres behind the visitor centre. It is the only Neolithic flint mine that is open to visitors in Britain.
"If
you want to take a walk please stay on the paths as there are snakes around"
warned the young lady who is in charge of the visitor centre. Not too keen on a
live encounter with a snake we happily obeyed and walked on the paths that
surround and connect the "holes" instead of climbing right through
them. Most of them are very overgrown with shrubs, small trees and bushes in
their lowest, middle, point and some of the shrubs have thorns, so even without
the warning we probably wouldn't have been tempted to explore them too closely.
Traveling
with kids is not always easy and if they don't like where you take them they
can give you a very hard time. Now Grime's Graves is not exactly Disneyland and by the time we'd reached the shaft I
started to wonder whether it really had been a good idea to come here as both
our girls made long faces. I didn't need to worry as the mine sold itself to
them. As soon as we entered the small hut that has been built on top of the
entrance their faces lit up – they'd spotted the big box with bright yellow
hard hats in the corner and the long ladder leading downwards.
The very
friendly and chatty young man in charge confirmed that they were not only allowed
to wear a helmet but that they would have to and that they also would need to
climb down the ladder to reach the mine. Their faces lit up and, after a quick glance
downwards, my youngest commented "Wow! What a big hole!"
They only
let a certain amount of people down into the mine at one time and so we had to
wait a bit. To shorten the waiting time the young man told us how the flint was
mined and how those holes have been created and this is exactly what makes this
place so fascinating. Each and every of those many hundred mines has been dug
by using such primitive tools like red-deer antlers and bone. Now imagine the sheer
size of those mines – the shaft leads 9 metre (30 ft) deep into the ground,
there is one large chamber and from this lead several galleries even deeper
into the earth. Once a dig was exhausted or it got too complicated to get the
flint out the holes were filled up again when the next mine was opened. This
explains the strange landscape. By the time the young man had finished his
story and other visitors had left we were able to ascend into the mine even my
husband looked more than just a bit impressed.
To get down
the ladder wasn't a big problem, 9 metres sounds a lot and it gets darker the
further down you get, but even our girls managed without any trouble. We each
had to go right before one of the children to be able to hold them in case they
had slipped but thankfully this didn't happen. The main chamber of the mine was
surprisingly high and standing up wasn't a problem. They've put lights down
there, during the times the mines were in use the people had to rely on natural
daylight from above and only had primitive oil lamps for use in the galleries.
These galleries are very narrow and not very high at all and whilst the girls had
a great time exploring them it wasn't quite that easy for us. They only lead a
metre or so into the ground and are blocked by bars but you can easily see into
the illuminated chambers behind. You don't need to be claustrophobic to break
into cold sweat at the pure imagination how it must have been to lie in those
tiny tunnels to dig even further into the ground – with the full knowledge that
there are already 9 metres of ground above you and that the whole construction
could cave in.
As
fascinating it was – I was glad to be on the ground again. I'm not too keen on
enclosed places, especially if they are under ground, and if I hadn't been that
impressed by the achievement of those people from 5000 years ago I'd never even
had considered climbing down that mineshaft. Well, it was worth every minute
and I can honestly say that these mines are one of the most amazing things I
have ever seen.
As it was a lovely and sunny day we also
took a walk around the site – it covers around 90 acres and is, even with its
strange outlook, or even because of it, a great place for walking. The whole
site wasn't very busy when we were there, apart from ours there were only 4
more cars in the car park, and we didn't meet anyone at all on our walk. There are
many different plants and shrubs and it all is surrounded by Thetford forest –
so plenty of scope for all those who'd like to walk a bit further distances
than we can convince our daughters to do.
There are some picnic tables in front of
the visitor centre but you'll have to bring your own food. They only sell ice-cream
and chocolates, coffee and water and although we did enjoy the ice-cream it
would be a bit meager for a picnic. There are also no toilets for visitors on
the site (they advice you to disappear behind a bush as we have found out when
one of the kids needed one) and, apart from the visitor centre, Grime's Graves
are not accessible for wheelchair users.
The mines are easy to find if you have your
own transport. They are located just of the A134 in between Thetford and Brandon
and are well signed out. If you don't have a car it gets a bit more difficult
as the next bus stop is about 2 miles away.
If you want to stay in the area for a bit longer
and need accommodation – there are some hotels/B&B's in Swaffham, Thetford
and Brandon and Bury St Edmunds is not too far away either.
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