In the sands of time
would like to create a marine conservation zone in the Formby area to protect this part of the area’s heritage – but we shall see!
Now, the expert team has logged, for posterity, well over 200 prehistoric human footprint trails, and more than 2,000 red deer prints, from along the Sefton coastline, dating 4-8,000 years ago – the Neolithic period.
The fascinating imprints include those from pregnant women to one with poorly trimmed toenails, and those with bursitis – the painful swelling of small fluid-filled bursae sacs that cushion your bones, tendons, ligaments, and muscles near joints, inflaming parts such as the knee, shoulder, elbow and hip.
The early human population who inhabited this prehistoric coast subsisted on a protein rich diet that included fish, deer, aurochs (a large wild ox), birds and their eggs. Foraged foods would have made a good proportion of their diet, such as shrimps, razor clams and winkles and edible seaweed.
Archaeologists stated that these traces of our prehistoric ancestors were a fascinating, fragile and finite evocation of our distant past.
Indeed, one of the leading archaeologist, Alison Burns (a former NHS manager), wrote a superb glossy, 44-page publication, The Prehistoric Footprints At Formby, in 2006 and 2014 (produced by the Sefton Coast Landscape Partnership and ABC Design UK).
This user-friendly guide helps us all to identify the human, animal and bird prints that appear here.
Sadly, after a long, devastating struggle against Alzheimer’s disease,
Gordon’s wife of over 50 years, Patricia, died in February 2014, so his excellent 30-page booklet, The Lost World Of Formby Point: Footprints On The Prehistoric Landscape, 5000 BC To 100BC, (ISBN 978-0-95081552-7) was produced that year in her memory, featuring two dozen wonderful colour images of the footprints – a real window into prehistory.
This brief account of Gordon’s 25 year-long research was published by The Alt Press for the Formby Civic Society.
Gordon’s hope was that his booklet would alert Formby Point’s visitors to the prehistoric landscape beneath their feet and encourage them to carry out further research of their own.
Two years later, it was with much sadness that Liz and her sister, Helena, announced the death of their dear father, Gordon Roberts, at home on August 23 2016, saying: “His intellect, kindness and wealth of knowledge will be missed by many. His love as a father will be missed by us. We hope readers will continue to visit Formby Point and think of him as you carry out your own research.”
Gordon Roberts began what is still, 30-plus years on, an exciting time for the Sefton coastline.
Thousands of years ago the people had, of course, a significantly different way of life, culture and world view to us, walking in what was a significantly different landscape than the one we currently witness – and yet, for all the differences, they were still human – still us!
We are indebted to Gordon Roberts (The Alt Press); Formby Civic Society; Alison Burns; and Sefton Coast Landscape Partnership & ABC Design UK, for the use of the illustrations. Please buy their publications.
Next week, in part two, we look at how to spot the various footprints – and get prehistorically poetic.