During the Würm glaciation (until 11.700 years ago), when the Rhine, Maas and Schelde rivers joined the Thames to flow through a single channel into the Atlantic, by way of the Straits of Dover, groups of late Paleolithic hunters, known as Hamburgians, ventered into this area in pursuit of reindeer during the summer, withdrawing southward again with the onset of winter. (William TeBrake, 1985, 60)