Humans reached Britain at least 500,000 years ago. Two sites have recently been discovered on the Norfolk and Suffolk coasts that may push this event back to as much as 700,000 years ago. One site not far from Cromer (Norfolk) has been found in organic sediments on the foreshore. These sediments have revealed flint tools, including a handaxe, and well-preserved plant and animal remains.

The plant remains include pollen, seeds and wood. They show that the humans occupied the backwater of a large river, bordered by coniferous forest during a warm climate. The bones from the site include those of bison and deer. Cut-marks made by flint tools have been found on the bones and show that the animals were butchered for their meat.

The exact date of the site is not clear. After the humans occupied the site the climate cooled and three separate ice-sheets deposited boulder clays across the area. It is known that the latest of these ice-sheets occurred 450,000 years ago. Smaller bones from extinct species of voles and shrews are also helping to date the site. Whether the site is 500,000 or 700,000 years old, it is still among the first evidence for humans in northern Europe.