Blocks of peat are often thrown onto Chesil Beach, Dorset, particularly in the Abbotsbury - West Bexington section. These contain numerous plant macrofossils, notably Alder and reed, though animal remains are considerably rarer, the only previous record seems to be that of a portion of a Deer skull found associated with a peat block in 1995. It is impossible to say if the large rolled molar of an unidentified species of elephant, found on the beach in 1823 was derived from the peat, but it seems unlikely.

Early in 2000 David Harvey of Bridport was examining peat blocks on Chesil beach at Abbotsbury, in the vicinity of the old tank traps (SY 568 839), when he found a group of bones, clearly derived from an eroded block of peat. He subsequently described the find as follows.

"The remains were almost completely exposed when found and not easy to identify as being ancient at first due to so many seabird bones scavenged around the area. On closer examination though the remains were aged, this could not have been accomplished by remaining on the beach as the sea, weather (and tourists) would have destroyed them in a very short while, although sun drying may have split and curled the shoulder blade? The limb bone was loose (and lucky not to have been blown away on the wind) and when lifted an impression was left on the peat - similarly with the shoulder blade, although the underneath part had reduced to powder in part."

The bones were given to the Chesil Beach Centre at Ferrybridge and subsequently identified by English Heritage as being those of European Beaver Castor fiber.

"The bones consist of an almost complete left scapula, a complete left clavicle and a fragment of the proximal half of a right ulna. The three bones are similar in size to those of an adult male beaver from Bergroitzer, Germany [AML specimen 1545, Faunal reference collection, Centre for Archaeology, Fort Cumberland, Portsmouth]."

Beaver seem to have been widespread in Britain in prehistory and to have gradually disappeared from the country over several thousand years. Beavers were not only hunted for their skins and castoreum (a secretion from their scent glands), but their activities are generally incompatible with human management of woodlands and water courses. Their extinction was very gradual, disappearing from Northern England by about AD1000 (though probably earlier in the south), from Wales by the fourteenth century and Scotland by the sixteenth. It is probable that beavers were never common in Dorset as, apart from the new Abbotsbury record there are only two other records from the County, Keynston Mill near Blandford, and Shapwick, both on the River Stour.

While the date these remains is uncertain, other samples of peat that have been found on the beach have been dated to 6100 +/- 120 BP which may indicate their approximate age.

This implications of this discovery for the understanding of the past environment of the early Fleet are considerable. Beavers will not tolerate brackish water so when these peats were laid down there must have been virtually no marine influence. In addition the beaver, almost uniquely amongst mammals, will deliberately alter their surroundings to make them more suitable as their habitat. This is done through the construction of dams to maintain water levels above the entrance to their burrows. Their felling of trees is akin to a natural coppicing process, with the trees sending up tasty new shoots from the stump. Although flooding caused by dams can result in trees being drowned, it has also been suggested that beavers historically helped the spread of Alder in Britain, by creating suitable habitat for these water-loving trees. This latter point is particularly interesting as the peats found on Abbotsbury beach often contain remains of Alder.

This suggests that, at the end of the mesolithic and the beginning of the Neolithic, the Fleet, instead of being a narrow brackish lagoon, was a wide, freshwater marsh, which would almost certainly have been very rich in wildlife. It was this environment that the mesolithic people who lived along the present Fleet shore, and on Portland would probably have exploited.

Acknowledgements;
Thanks to David Harvey, who first discovered the Beaver bones, Don Moxom of the Chesil Beach and Fleet Nature Reserve, Dr. Polydora Baker Zoo-archaeologist for English Heritage who identified the remains and Professor Bryony Coles for her helpful comments on the earlier history of Beavers in Dorset.