Norfolk’s most ancient attraction named among England’s best

Grime’s Graves near Thetford features a complex of prehistoric flint mines dug 4,500 years ago and is the country’s oldest human-made underground area.

The site is nationally acclaimed and experts describe the graves as an ancient industrial hub, the Neolithic equivalent of Yorkshire’s cotton mills or South Wales’ steelworks.

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Underground at Grime’s Graves (Image: English Heritage) Now The Telegraph has ranked the country’s best English Heritage sites with Grimes Graves being named number six.

Maintaining the title of Britain’s largest flint mine, visitors can explore Pit One, one of the mineshafts, with a multisensory projection revealing what life would have been like for miners and their families.

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The Telegraph also suggests a stay at the nearby Elveden Inn with its “contemporary rooms” and “no-nonsense” pub food.

Jennifer Wexler, a historian from English Heritage, said: “What makes Grime’s Graves such a special place is that there are still so many secrets to be unlocked.

“To this day, most of the over 400 pits remain untouched and geophysical surveys suggest that the mines covered a much greater area.”