Land North of Biddenham: Investigation of a Neolithic to Post-medieval Landscape North-west of Bedford

Between 2012 and 2021, Albion Archaeology undertook a series of investigations to the north of Biddenham on the Northern Section of the Bedford Western Bypass and subsequent infill development. The results of both projects are presented here as a single, coherent archaeological landscape.

 Neolithic to early Bronze Age remains comprised 21 pits (one yielding a large assemblage of worked flint) and two ring-ditch monuments – elements of a deliberately structured landscape, as seen on the Biddenham Loop c. 2km to the south.

 The middle–late Bronze Age saw the first land enclosure, with the juxtaposition of a ditched and a palisaded enclosure unusual and possibly unique. Early–middle Iron Age remains included a small unenclosed settlement, located between two field systems, and an activity area.

 A late Iron Age / early Roman settlement was established on previously unoccupied land, featuring ditched enclosures and an integral trackway. A terret ring and a mirror fragment suggest a degree of wealth amongst the inhabitants.

 There were two Roman farmsteads, c. 1km apart, the more fully investigated of which comprised enclosures on either site of an integral trackway, plus buildings, threshing floors and water-pits. A lead pan weight and coinage indicate involvement in commerce. The only hint of settlement continuity into the Anglo-Saxon period was a single pit containing pottery of that date.

 The land subsequently lay within the open fields associated with the medieval township of Biddenham. The post-medieval agricultural landscape also featured a windmill and the quarrying of gravel, clay and limestone.

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