History

Click here to read an in-depth article about the history of Binsted, in British History Online

Geology

The fossils that can be found in Binsted recall the remote prehistory of the whole landscape, back to a period when it was all under the sea, including the Downs, and the chalk and flints were laid down at the bottom of the sea. Stone tools have been found in Binsted and worked flints can often be picked up from the paths, thrown up by farming.

Two ‘raised beaches’, now buried underground, run through the parish in an east-west direction, one north and one south of the A27; they date back about half a million years to the time of Boxgrove Man, whose remains were found at nearby Eartham on the Downs, associated with one of the old beach lines.