Who were Southwold’s earliest visitors?

Ape-like, hairy and upright, they walked on two legs and carried their young. They made useful tools from wooden sticks or by laboriously chipping flint stones. Unlike apes, they had fully opposable thumbs which meant that they could delicately manipulate small things and exert a powerful grip.

They have been given the name homo heidelbergensis and are the likely ancestor of homo sapiens, the group to which present-day humans belong.