Long before Man existed, there was the swamp!
300 Million Years ago.before the dinosours. giant plants grew and died in forested swamps, and over millions of years they were buried under water and mud until by 10,000 years ago, heat and pressure had turned the dead plants into coal; the Ice Age was over and the landscape saw new vegetation growing.
So the existence of coal under our feet in Blackwell , and the fossils found within the coal, demonstrate that we can trace our location to a prehistoric forested swamp! 
The picture here is of a fossilised tree root, known as a Lycopod, found in a Blackwell Parish Coal Mine.
Blackwell lands 10,000 years ago would have been a reasonable place to roam and then settle, since there was a stream and the huge forested area, now the remains of Sherwood Forest, gave protection from the East, while the foothills of the Peak District protected it from the West. Church Hill would have provided a perfect viewing platform to watch for any enemies advancing.
Scattered pieces of flint have been found in the fields of Old Blackwell, including a core and blade as the examples shown here, This shows that people were here several thousand years ago, during the late Mesolithic ( 7000 to 4001 BC) and late Neolithic to early Bronze Age ( 3000 to 1501 BC).
If you believe in spirits, you may think they walk among us in the fields and lanes we walk today.
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