6-7,000 years ago, the sea was 100ft lower than it is now on this stretch of Sussex coast. The landscape is alien, Martian, unfamiliar except from Sci Fi movies. The sea recedes nearly a mile out on the Spring Tide. The sea offers back rock pools still as a mirror. Oystercatchers lazily strut, even a Heron sits on an outcrop looking out to sea.

Underfoot the ground is not all that it seems. Pett Level is not the usual sand, rocks, barnacles and wading sea life. Touching the ground reveals a surprising fact. It is wood, trees. As far as anyone knows, around the time the English Channel was forming, the area was a forest. The forest is petrified. The wood and trees are recognisable and familiar, and can be identified: Birch, Hazel and Oak can be distinguished. They’ve been carbon dated at about 5,200BC.