BRITS, not French, ‘were first to eat frogs legs’

A dig at the Blick Mead site, about 1.5km from Stonehenge, Wiltshire, led to the discovery of a charred toad’s leg alongside small fish vertebrate bones of trout or salmon as well as burnt bones of aurochs (the predecessor of cows).

According to the researchers from the University of Buckingham, the find dates back to between 6250BC and 7596BC and is the earliest evidence of a cooked toad or frog anywhere in the world.

The date is 8000 years earlier than the French and even before the Czechs, who recently claimed it as a traditional dish.

The dig, which runs until October 25, will be made into a documentary by the BBC, to be screened at a later date.

David Jacques, from the University of Buckingham, which is leading the dig, told the BBC people living there thousands of years ago were eating a “Heston Blumenthal-style menu”.

Mr Jacques added: “This is significant for our understanding of the way people were living around 5,000 years before the building of Stonehenge and it begs the question – where are the frogs now?”