 
IntroductionTwo great hills dominate the village of Findon: Church Hill and Cissbury Ring. Located on Church Hill are some of the oldest flint mines in the UK and nestled at the foot of the hill is St John the Baptist Church, separated from the village by the busy A24 Findon bypass. Contents
Church Hill viewed from Findon Valley 
 [aerial photograph / map] The photograph above shows Church Hill, as seen from the footpath that leads up from the car park [aerial photograph / map] in Findon Valley to Cissbury Ring. 
Church Hill viewed from Cissbury Ring (Photograph & SpellerMilner Design 2004) [aerial photograph / map] The photograph above shows the view from Cissbury Ring looking out over Findon Village towards Church Hill and in the general direction of some other important Neolithic flint mining sites such as Tolmere, Blackpatch and Harrow Hill. There are other flint mine sites located at High Salvington, which is out of sight to the left of the picture. The undulations in the foreground are the remains of some of the 270 backfilled Neolithic flint mine shafts that have been recorded at the site of this Iron Age Hillfort, which was occupied by the Romans. So people have occupied this part of the South Downs for thousands of years. Evidence for flint extraction at Cissbury is both extensive and diverse, with at least 20 mine shafts having been examined archaeologically between 1873 and 1956. At the edge of the ring, where the ground drops away to the valley below, can be seen the remains of the rampart that surrounds the hillfort. The ditch that forms part of those defences is hidden from view.
Panoramic view of Cissbury Ring from Church Hill   [aerial photograph / map] The image above, which consists of four photographs that have been joined together, shows the panoramic view of Findon Village and Cissbury Ring that can be seen looking eastwards from the top of Church Hill. These photographs were taken during December 2004. If you look carefully, you should be able to see frost lying in the shaded parts of some fields. Download times will vary according to the file size and the bandwidth of your connection to the Internet. The greater the enlargement, the bigger the file to be downloaded. The left-hand end of the panorama shows the view looking northwards. The right-hand of the panorama shows the view looking southwards, with Findon Valley in the middle distance and Worthing and the sea in the far distance. The ramparts of Cissbury Ring can be seen quite clearly. The extensive eastern slopes of High Salvington, which is surmounted by a TV mast, can be seen at the extreme right-hand end of the panorama.
At least 26 mine shafts have been recorded from the Church Hill site. Unfortunately, the amount of plough damage on the hill now makes it difficult to determine how many more mines existed there. It is likely that more existed, however this plough damage means they may never be found. David Field has suggested that mining probably started on the steeper eastern slopes of the hill, where the flint may have first outcropped, and gradually moved towards the summit. Ernest Willet investigated the upper levels of pits on Church Hill between 1868 and 1870. During the early 1930s, the Earthwork Subcommittee of the Worthing Archaeological Society examined a series of irregular hollows along the north-western side of Church Hill opposite Tolmere Pond, but results were disappointing. Meanwhile, John Pull excavated flint mines at Church Hill between 1932 and 1939. Summaries of his investigations were published in the Sussex County Magazine. He returned after the end of WW2 in 1946, when the British Army left the area, and continued work investigating mines and round barrows on Church Hill, and at Tolmere, until 1952. Radiocarbon dates from the Sussex site suggest that flint mining began on the South Downs at the end of the fifth millennium BC, possibly as early as 4,200 BC and continued to the end of the fourth millennium. By comparison, flint mining at Grimes Graves in Norfolk is thought to have begun and ended in the third millennium BC. Artefacts from the various archaeological excavations have been widely dispersed, but the best collections may be found in Worthing Museum & Art Gallery, Museum of Sussex Archaeology, Barbican House in Lewes and the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford.
Neolithic flint minesNeolithic refers to the cultural period that lasted in SW Asia from about 9000 to 6000 BC and in Europe from about 4000 to 2400 BC. It was characterized by primitive crop growing and stock rearing and the use of polished stone, flint tools and weapons. Other flint mines, upon the chalkland of the South Downs, are located at Nore Down, Stoke Down, Long Down, Harrow Hill, Blackpatch, Tolmere, High Salvington, Cissbury and Mount Carvey.
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On foot from Findon Village
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