Church Hill, West Sussex facts for kids
 Location in West Sussex
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| Location | near Findon, West Sussex |
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| Coordinates | 50°51′48″N 0°25′5″W / 50.86333°N 0.41806°W |
| History | |
| Periods | Neolithic Bronze Age |
| Designated | 22 January 1935 |
| Reference no. | 1015238 |
Church Hill is an amazing ancient site in West Sussex, England. It's a place where archaeologists have found clues about people who lived long, long ago. This site was used during the Stone Age and the Bronze Age. You can find it on the beautiful South Downs, close to the village of Findon. It's also a special "scheduled monument," meaning it's protected because of its historical importance.
What is Church Hill?
Church Hill is an important archaeological site. It shows us how people lived and worked thousands of years ago. The site has two main parts: an ancient flint mine and a burial mound called a bowl barrow.
The Ancient Flint Mine
Imagine people digging deep underground to find special rocks! That's what happened at Church Hill. There are about 36 old shafts from a flint mine here. These shafts are now filled in, but you can still see them from above, especially in aerial photos.
- What is flint? Flint is a very hard stone. Ancient people used it to make tools, weapons, and even to start fires.
- How deep were the shafts? The shafts were about 0.9 to 1.8 meters (about 3 to 6 feet) deep.
- What did they find? From the bottom of these shafts, miners dug tunnels, called galleries, to follow layers of good flint.
Archaeologists found pieces of pottery at the bottom of these shafts. These pottery pieces tell us that the mine was used during the Late Stone Age and the Early to Middle Bronze Age.
Who Explored the Mine?
A famous archaeologist named John Pull led digs at Church Hill. He worked there from 1932 to 1939 and again from 1945 to 1949. He carefully excavated six of the shafts. More investigations happened later, between 1984 and 1986.
Church Hill is not the only flint mine in this area. Other ancient mines are known nearby at Blackpatch, Cissbury, and Harrow Hill. John Pull also explored some of these other sites.
The Bowl Barrow
At Church Hill, there's also an ancient burial mound called a bowl barrow. It's mostly flattened now because of modern farming.
- What is a bowl barrow? It's a type of round mound built a long time ago to bury people.
- How big was it? This barrow was once a circular mound about 15.5 meters (about 50 feet) across.
Archaeologists found something very interesting inside one of the filled-in mine shafts, right under where the barrow was. They discovered a beaker (a type of pottery cup) with cremated human remains. Next to it were two flint axes. This discovery shows that people continued to use this site into the Beaker period, which was part of the Bronze Age. It suggests the site was important for a very long time.
