England, like the rest of Europe, was mostly covered with forest at this time so it is reasonable to assume that the early Neolithics, after crossing from northwest mainland Europe, used their boats to make journeys up the British rivers to search for small clearings (created by the death of mature trees, lightning strikes, storm damage or by the Mesolithics using fire) suitable for cattle to graze and seeds to grow.
The planning and communal effort that farming demands was to lead to a more settled way of life. Aurochs (wild cattle) and pigs were native, but sheep, goats and domesticated cattle were introduced, as were wheat and barley. Sickles, querns, and leaf-shaped arrowheads appeared.
Carinated, plain bowl and decorated bowl pottery appeared in the Early Neolithic (4000-3300 BC), Impressed Ware during the Middle Neolithic (3300-2900 BC) and Grooved Ware in the (2900-2200 BC) Late Neolithic.
Stone tools continued to be made by knapping but now they were polished using either an abrasive (sand and water) or a rubbing stone (polissoir) to provide a more durable cutting edge that could easily be sharpened.
Axe heads were made from flint and other hard rocks. A large tree could be felled with a polished axe and then split into planks using wedges and mallets. Tools (e.g. ploughs and sickles) were made from stone, antler, bone and wood.
In Britain, rock quarrying and flint mining began 4000 BC. Grime’s Graves, a large Neolithic flint mining complex in Norfolk, was the first of such to be identified. Many other flint mines have been found, the densest groups found in West Sussex includes Harrow Hill and Cissbury.
The main role of the stone axe during the Neolithic was forest clearance. As the demand for more space increased, trees were hacked down and burning was probably used to clear undergrowth and to dispose of unwanted timber.
Neolithic houses were usually rectangular with thatched roofs and walls of woven hazel or willow rods wind-proofed with a mixture of clay, straw and dung. In the south, however, such houses seem to have been almost non-existent.
Timber buildings were in use for some time but when they were destroyed or abandoned, none of them seem to have been replaced. Excavation of the Stone Age settlement at Lismore Fields in Buxton in Derbyshire, discovered evidence (floors, post holes and pits) of a Mesolithic timber round-house and at least two Early Neolithic buildings.
Evidence of increasing control over the environment can be seen in the Sweet Track (3800 BC), a wooden causeway named, after its finder Ray Sweet, in the Somerset Levels. It stretched across the now largely drained marsh between what was then an island at Westhay and a ridge of high ground at Shapwick, a distance of about 1800 metres.
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