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The First Houses
A few stone tools, including a 4,500
year old flint arrowhead, show thatduring the Stone Age people visitedthe area, hunting and gathering
food. At this time much ofthe
landscape was covered by trees.
The earliest houses just two or
three - at Cambourne date to the
Bronze Age, just over 3,000 yearsago. The buildings are small and
circular. They would have had a
conical thatched roof.
Not many objects were found so
these Bronze Age settlements mayhave been short-lived. Crops could
have been grown in woodland
clearings. Eventually, by the Iron
Age, much ofthe woodland coverhad been cut down.
Cambourne's Story
Before Cambourne was built, teams
of archaeologists painstakinglyexcavated buried tracesof ahidden history.
The discoveries madeshow thatthefirstsettlement at Cambourne dates
back over 3,000 years, tothe Bronze
Age. People continued to liveherein Iron Age and Roman times butit
seemsthatin Anglo-Saxon times
settlements moved tothesiteoftoday 's villages.
The new settlement Cambourneis
the firsttimethat peoplehave livedheresince Roman times.
The First HousesThe First Houses
Cambourne's StoryCambourne's Story
Left: Excavating Roman pot containing glass jarMain: Part of Lower Cambourne under excavationBottom: Excavating Roman pewter plates
Top: Reconstructed roundhouse from Westhay, Somerset
Inset: Flint arrowheadBottom: Roundhouse ditches at Lower Cambourne
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The First Farms
By 400 BC the area was permanently
settled. There was at leastone IronAge farm in each valley, closeto astream. The farmshad twoorthree
round houses. Droveways wereused
toherd animalsintothe farmyard,keeping them away from the crops
grown nearby.
Tiny snailsshellsin the farmyard
ditchshow that
it was floodedin winter astheheavy clay soils
areslow to drain.
The farmers kept cattle and sheep
and some pigs. The wearon someofthe cattle bonesshow thatthey were
probably used to pull ploughs. Spelt
and emmer wheat wereharvestedusing sickles and hazlenuts and
sloes werestill gathered for food.
Objects found in the farms
paint a pictureofeverydaylife. Quernsstones were
used to grind flour for
bread. Some pots wereused forstorage, others
for cooking. Clay loom
weightsshow cloth waswoven. Stone whetstones
wereused tosharpen thebladesofiron tools.
Cambourne's StoryCambourne's Story
The First FarmsThe First Farms
Top: Charred spelt wheat
Main: Examining snail shell sample
Main: Reconstruction showing loomweights and quernsoneRight: Whetstone
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By the Roman Road
At first little changed after the
Roman invasion of AD 43. Somevillas were built in the Bourn valleybut at Cambourne some ofthe old
farms continued, and the houses
were still round.
Two new Roman roads ran nearby.
The A428 and the A1193, which wasErmine Street, an important highway.
Gradually Roman fashions were
adopted. Metal brooches fastenednew styles of dress. Rectangularbuildings were built, their timber
frames rested on the ground surface
leaving few traces.
Cattle became the most common
farm animal. Some new crops suchas beans and peas were introduced.
Some ofthe quern stones were
imported from Germany.
Occasionally valuable objects were
buried, maybe as thanks to the gods.
Glassjars and pewter plates give a
rare glimpse ofobjects rarely thrownaway as rubbish.
After the Romans
There are few traces
ofthe Anglo-Saxons.More emphasis onkeeping cattle may have
led to more farms being
built in the valleys andthe higher land at
Cambourne was not
used for growing crops.Today 's villages seem
likely to have grown
up on the site ofAnglo-Saxon farms.
In the 12-13th centuries the land
at Cambourne was cultivated again.Soil was mounded up into long
ridges, these deep seed beds create
fields with distinctive ridges andfurrows. When wool production
became important these fields were
used for sheep grazing and theywere not ploughed again until the
20th century, which slowly flattened
the ridge and f urrow.
Today 's new settlement at
Cambourne represents the latest
step in an ever changing history ofthe way the land has been used.
The Roman RoadsThe Roman Roads
Cambourne's StoryCambourne's Story
Inset: Roman bow broochMain: Roman glass jar
Right: Saxon girdle hanger (belt pendant)Below: Saxon cobbled causeway with cattle burial in foreground
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Cambourne's StoryCambourne's Story
Pewterplates
Jar andglass
vessels
Drovewa
y
Building
Field
Building
Pond/Waterhole
Drov
ew
ay
Roundhouses
Roundhouse
Roundhouses
Roundhouse
rov
D
eway
Drove
way
Enclosure/Field
Settlements at Lower Cambourne
Late IronAge/EarlyRoman Late Roman
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Cambourne's StoryCambourne's Story
Moat
Roundhouse
Roundhouse
Lower Cambournesettlements
Settlements
Settlement
Jeavons Laneburials
Settlement
Settlement
Girdle hanger
Holloway
Hearthandgullies
Enclosures
Boundary
ditches
Ridge
and f urrow
Ridge
and f urrow
Ridgeand f urrow
Droveway
and enclosures
Droveways
and settlement
Droveway
and enclosure
Field boundaries
and waterhole Fie ld
boundaries
Waterhole
A1198Roman
Ermine Street
Prehistoric
trackway
Prehistoric
trackway
Bronze Age (2400 - 700BC)
Iron Age (700BC - AD43)
Roman (AD43 - 410)
Saxon (410 - 1066)
Medieval (1066 - 1500)
A428
Roman Road
Flint
Flint
Flint
Pottery
Coin hoard
Female
Male
Male
Hobnails
Ring
Ring
Nail
Jeavons Lane Romanburials
Roman: brooch, iron plough, pins, tweezers and pewter plates
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Cambourne's StoryCambourne's Story
Wessex Archaeology
Booknowpublished
Face from a Roman flagon or jar