The Late Upper Palaeolithic Era
The odd wandering band of hunter-gatherers appears to have frequented the North-West of England at the end of the last (Devensian) Ice Age, during the late Upper Palaeolithic (c. 16,000 to 8000 BC).
Due to the actions of the ice in shaping the landscape, therefore rendering earlier evidence untraceable, these are the first attested humans in this region – and evidence of their occupation is somewhat sparse.
Perhaps the earliest dated evidence is that at POULTON-LE-FYLDE, a site which has yielded the remains of an elk, with associated barbed points, radiocarbon dated to 10,400 +/- 300 BC. This date is during a warming trend, with recession of the ice rendering this area and its resources usable to man and beast again.
These early people used caves for shelter, and evidence has been found in a number of caves in the North – especially VICTORIA CAVE and KINSEY CAVE in the Craven area of Yorkshire, and in two caves in “Lancashire North-of-the-Sands”, i. e. the Furness area, now in modern Cumbria. KIRKHEAD CAVE in Furness has artefacts dated to 8700 +/- 200 BC.
The stratographic evidence is, however, disputed. Three blades from the Upper Palaeolithic have been discovered near Kirkhead Cave at LINDALE LOW (the place-name particle “low(e)” often indicates the activity of early humans).
