Chequer's Wood and Old Park

{{Short description|UK Site of Special Scientific Interest}}

{{Infobox SSSI

|image= Track across the heath, East of Canterbury - geograph.org.uk - 984520.jpg

|image_caption =

|name= Chequer's Wood and Old Park

|aos= Kent

|interest=Biological
Geological

|gridref={{gbmappingsmall|TR 173 586}}

|area= {{convert|106.9|ha|acre|abbr=off}}

|notifydate= 1985

|map=[http://magic.defra.gov.uk/MagicMap.aspx?startTopic=Designations&activelayer=sssiIndex&query=HYPERLINK%3D%271003485%27 Magic Map]

}}

Chequer's Wood and Old Park is a {{convert| 106.9 |ha|acre|abbr=off |adj=on }} biological and geological Site of Special Scientific Interest on the eastern outskirts of Canterbury in Kent.{{cite web|url= https://designatedsites.naturalengland.org.uk/SiteDetail.aspx?SiteCode=S1003485&SiteName=chequer%27s&countyCode=&responsiblePerson=&SeaArea=&IFCAArea= |title=Designated Sites View: Chequer's Wood and Old Park | series= Sites of Special Scientific Interest|publisher=Natural England|accessdate = 31 January 2018}}{{cite web|url= http://magic.defra.gov.uk/MagicMap.aspx?startTopic=Designations&activelayer=sssiIndex&query=HYPERLINK%3D%271003485%27|title=Map of Chequer's Wood and Old Park|series= Sites of Special Scientific Interest|publisher=Natural England|accessdate= 31 January 2018}} It is a Geological Conservation Review site.{{cite web|url= http://jncc.defra.gov.uk/default.aspx?page=4174&gcr=992 |title= Fordwich Pit (Quaternary of South-East England) |series=Geological Conservation Review |publisher=Joint Nature Conservation Committee|accessdate= 11 January 2018}}

This site includes Fordwich Pit, which has yielded a large collection of early Acheulian handaxes dated to 620,000 to 560,000 years old. Making them the oldest reliably dated handaxes in Britain, and the site one of the oldest archaeological sites in northern Europe.{{cite journal | doi=10.1098/rsos.211904 | title=On the earliest Acheulean in Britain: First dates and in-situ artefacts from the MIS 15 site of Fordwich (Kent, UK) | year=2022 | last1=Key | first1=Alastair | last2=Lauer | first2=Tobias | last3=Skinner | first3=Matthew M. | last4=Pope | first4=Matthew | last5=Bridgland | first5=David R. | last6=Noble | first6=Laurie | last7=Proffitt | first7=Tomos | journal=Royal Society Open Science | volume=9 | issue=6 | page=211904 | pmid=35754990 | pmc=9214292 | bibcode=2022RSOS....911904K | s2cid=249891478 | doi-access=free }} The site is also notable for the discovery of other stone tool types, including scrapers, awls, flakes and cores. The tools were potentially made by Homo heidelbergensis, and the site represents the only securely dated evidence of hominins in Britain during this period (marine isotope stage 15). {{cite journal | doi=10.1098/rsos.211904 | title=On the earliest Acheulean in Britain: First dates and in-situ artefacts from the MIS 15 site of Fordwich (Kent, UK) | year=2022 | last1=Key | first1=Alastair | last2=Lauer | first2=Tobias | last3=Skinner | first3=Matthew M. | last4=Pope | first4=Matthew | last5=Bridgland | first5=David R. | last6=Noble | first6=Laurie | last7=Proffitt | first7=Tomos | journal=Royal Society Open Science | volume=9 | issue=6 | page=211904 | pmid=35754990 | pmc=9214292 | bibcode=2022RSOS....911904K | s2cid=249891478 | doi-access=free }}

Habitats include alder wood in a valley bottom, acidic grassland on dry sandy soil, oak and birch woodland, scrub and a pond.{{cite web|url= https://designatedsites.naturalengland.org.uk/PDFsForWeb/Citation/1003485.pdf |title=Chequer's Wood and Old Park citation|series= Sites of Special Scientific Interest|publisher=Natural England|accessdate= 31 January 2018}}{{cite book|title=The British Palaeolithic: Human Societies at the Edge of the Pleistocene World|first1=Paul|last1=Pettitt|first2=Mark|last2=White|page=152|publisher=Routledge|year=2012|location=Abingdon, UK|isbn=978-0-415-67455-3}}