Alun and I visited this centre on 28th May 2005. This site is actually only a couple of miles from our home, if you walk over the fields, or a bit further if you drive. Here are presented six pages of photos with accompanying information. If you wish to see the centre's website, please click here (and use the Back button to come back), or here is a summary of its history:
The remains were discovered in the 1970s, and the site developed from 1982 onwards, where Anglian Water was excavating, and came across some old timber submerged in the waterlogged peat. They sent it away for dating, and it turned out to be from 1000 B.C. Various other artefacts on site date between 1350 B.C. and 950 B.C. The original settlement consisted of a wooden palisade stretching across a small valley which was used for pasture in summer and which flooded in winter, and also both Bronze Age and Iron Age roundhouses which have been found in or near the site. The remains have been preserved either in the preservation hall with a moist environment, or in the more conventional museum. Also on site are reconstructions of some of the buildings and features found. The site is run by a private charity, with some sponsorship from Anglian Water, and can be visited during the summer season. It is also an active archaeological site, and Time Team recorded a programme there in February 2000. Below is a plan of the site, showing how much there is:
Below: You can see both the woven fences which the people used to enclose their fields and houses, and this building would be used to house animals:
Below: A more complete view of the animal enclosure house:
And we just happened to catch someone hiding in there. These were an old breed of sheep comparable to those existing at the time. More about these on the "animal" page.
