For some 3 months in 2015 my wife and I toured England and Scotland with an Eriba caravan. We made short visits to lots of places. Here is a story about our visit to the Cambridgeshire area.
Flag Fen is one of the most important Bronze Age archaeological sites in northern Europe, yet few people seem to have heard of it. It lies just outside Peterborough and was discovered in 1982 as the result of construction in the area. It was excavated by Dr Francis Pryor MBE (later of Time Team fame).
We went to visit for the second time, having been there a few years before. The site’s importance lies in the wooden causeway and platform that was found and, amazingly, still exists because of preservation by the wet peaty soil. At the time of its construction, some 3,500 years ago, it crossed the wet fenland between two slightly higher areas of land. The causeway consists of 5 rows of stakes totalling some 60,000 and runs for a kilometre. Halfway along the causeway was built a wooden platform as big as Wembley Stadium. Excavations found what appear to be ritual deposits of valuable objects in what would have been water alongside the platform and the causeway. A small part of the causeway has been left excavated and in situ with a building over it. The wood is kept wet or it would crumble to dust. Some still stand upright after all these years. The rest of the causeway is underground and is threatened by continued drainage of the fens. If it isn’t kept wet, it will crumble away.
A lake has been created at the site to provide water to humidify the exposed wood. Naturally it plays host to flag flowers from which the site gets its name. A museum building now stands on part of the site of the wooden platform. Among other things it houses the earliest wheel found in Britain which was found at Flag Fen. They also found a Roman Road built to cross the fen (Ermine Street – the A1 – is nearby) and one can walk on its alignment within the site.
When we visited Flag Fen was host to 8 Bronze Age log boats excavated in 2011/12 some two miles away at Must Farm. Again, they are very intact because of the waterlogged and peaty conditions in which they have lain buried for all this time. They are now at Flag Fen for conservation work. This entails spraying them with a type of wax which will preserve the wood fibres intact. The spraying is done very slowly and will take another two years to complete. When we visited the boats were all wrapped up in bubble wrap in a special refrigerated room where they are sprayed. I look forward to another visit when the work is finished. The whole site is called the Flag Fen Archaeology Park and includes two reconstructed round houses – one Bronze Age and one Iron Age (although the Iron Age one needs a new roof after damage last winter).
With examples of hurdling and hedge laying, and a reconstructed drove road, one gets a little bit of a feel for what the landscape would have been like. A small flock of Soay sheep from the Western Isles of Scotland are kept on site as it’s believed they are the closest to Bronze Age sheep. They are small, hardy and don’t need shearing because their wool falls off naturally in clumps.
This ancient period of our history has always fascinated me, and I was thrilled to be able to visit this wonderful place.
Cambridge is a lovely city with loads of beautiful buildings and a lively non-threatening atmosphere. Mind you the traffic is as bad as I’ve seen it anywhere. Even the park and ride bus gets snagged up in it. We visited the city centre on our last day in the area. It was the beginning of the week of student celebrations so lots of marquees were going up on the college lawns. I reckon we were approached at least 15 times by young men hoping we would sign up for a ride in a punt. We may have got into one, but I doubt we would have managed to climb out again!
We visited the Botanic Gardens. They appear to be vast but in fact this is partly illusion due to the clever design and layout. They are very beautiful and varied with many lovely trees which provided much needed shade. Daft really to go there when the pollen count is very high, and it is hay fever that has caused my wheezy chest but “sensible” has never been a word that can be accurately used about the way I care for myself!