Archaeologists in France have for many years recognized hand-axes of St. Acheul facies in association with flake-implements of Levallois type, which are contemporary with the mid-Pleistocene deposits of the Somme valley. Their place in the culture-sequence is after the cold period that produced the main Coombe-rock of South-East England, and the Little Eastern or Upper Chalky Boulder-clay of East Anglia. The Coombe-rock referred to overwhelmed the Levallois II factory-site at Baker's Hole, Northfleet, Kent.

In England, however, it has taken much longer to trace these mid-Pleistocene hand-axes in contemporary beds. The first was found by the late F. G. Spurrell on the classic ‘floor’ at the base of the Crayford Brickearth, though it was not until quite recently that the correct age of the Crayford series was determined. This specimen is now in the British Museum (Natural History), but is not figured in the present note.