Archaeology
In 1992 it was learnt that a prehistoric site 6000 or 7000 years old on farmland in Croxteth Park was to be destroyed for a housing development. Excavations showed that the site belonged to the late Mesolithic period. It had been used by groups of prehistoric hunter-gatherers. The camp has now been buried under new housing.
The site at Croxteth was probably a small camp used by groups of people on hunting trips. This was similar to a number of sites investigated a few miles to the south in the Ditton Brook. Like at those sites, there were no traces of buildings at Croxteth. This is probably because the people staying there did not intend to stay for long. It would not have been worth constructing the kind of shelters that might leave archaeological traces today.
We found about 550 flint tools. This suggests that the hunters may have visited this location a number of times. The site was spread over about 20 by 15 metres. The main activity may have been working, or knapping, natural pieces of flint into usable tools. This included a small number of arrowheads, perhaps made whilst waiting for game to appear or during a stopover on a hunting expedition. The flint evidence does not suggest that a wide range of activities were carried out. This might have been expected if occupation were more concentrated. Stone tools used for things like preparing food or materials such as bone, antler, hides would be represented if this had been the case.
The camp lies in the valley of the Croxteth Brook. There are traces of three other locations in the immediate vicinity which were also used by hunter-gatherers. This suggests how important the area was to them. This was probably enhanced by the large, wetland peat bogs of Knowsley and Simonswood several miles to the east.
Mesolithic stone tools from Croxteth Park
Grains of pollen trapped in the peat can help archaeologists to work out what the land looked like in about 4000 BC. The pollen shows that Croxteth Park was surrounded by dense woodland, including oak, alder, hazel and elm trees. The people living here would have used these rich natural resources to make tools, build shelters and hunt for food. There is also some evidence that local groups were burning some areas of woodland, such as on Simonswood Moss. This would provide open areas for improving hunting strategies, as they also did in the adjacent uplands.