The Lincolnshire Historic Environment Record (HER) provides an enormous amount of detail finds and a great deal of information relating to cropmarks, aerial photography since 1946 and of structures that have been discovered mainly during contemporary works. Some eighty-six records are held in the HER for the parish of Bishop Norton, within which the oldest 'find' is recorded in record 50829: an Acheulian handaxe from the lower Paleolithic period (500,000 BC to 15001 BC) was found in 1954 by a farm labourer, on a hummock of sand and gravel on Atterby Carr near the river Ancholme. There are many records of finds and cropmarks linked to the Neolithic period (4000 BC - 2351 BC). These are generally, but not exclusively at the eastern end of the parish, suggesting that the river was the important natural feature for people at that time. Not surprisingly, it might have provided a 'highway', as well as a means of providing food. These records describe possible permanent settlement sites as well as small finds scattered around.