3. Neolithic Times

The process of clearing the land of trees so that it could be cultivated would have been a very slow and laborious process considering the primitive tools available in Britain during Neolithic Times. Axe heads fastened to wood handles would have been used, with difficulty, for felling trees. There is some evidence that fire was used for forest clearance but it is thought that this may have been a measure of last resort. 

The direct physical evidence of settlement in Domas and Harley at this time in the Archeological Record, takes the form of seven axeheads and an adze, as described, of Neolithic date. This is enough to prove that a settlement did exist, Domas being the most likely area. No doubt this was small in scale, and sporadic, rather than continuous, over the endless centuries despite the persistence argument. 

Examples of Neolithic Axeheads

This argument has two aspects. Firstly, when an area had been cleared of trees and was able to be cultivated it would then have become extremely valuable as a producer of food. It is also thought that in order to keep the land in suitable condition and to prevent the retaking of land by trees over relatively short periods, more or less continuous occupation may have been necessary, although this is unlikely. The second related argument is the natural and very strong tendency for people of any time period, to want to stay in a place they regard as their home. However, unforeseen and unrecorded adverse events, natural or otherwise, could have interrupted occupation. 

Settled groups growing their own food to supplement hunting, fishing and gathering gradually spread from the Middle East into southern Britain. In those times the European land mass was not separated from Britain.

It took around 2000 years for settlements to cross Britain from south to north. 

In Neolithic times the estimated population of Britain was no more than 250,000. Life was more or less nomadic and so it remained until the late Bronze Age.

Archeologists have collected a great deal of information on the subject of Neolithic culture so it is possible to create a picture of living conditions, of craft skills, customs and even beliefs.

Typically, it is known that small woodland clearings near to rivers would have been home to several family groups of perhaps 20 – 30 people at the most. Houses would have been small rectangular constructions of timber logs with wattle and daub or log walls. Fires for cooking and warmth were indoors, with the smoke exiting through a hole in the roof.

Around the dwellings were the first attempts at cultivated land. These were small scrubby fields protected by fences in the form of log palisades, high enough to prevent intrusion from wolves, lynx and bear and other predators hoping to feed on the chickens and other herded livestock carefully husbanded by the settlers.

In Shropshire early activity in the Neolithic was fairly restricted.