Flag Fen is a bronze age site dating from 2000BC (Before Christ).
Flag Fen is situated in Fengate, Peterborough England. The name Fengate means bushy area
and road or street.
It is a historic site of interest. It is a site of English
heritage, it was first discovered by Francis Pryor an archaeologist who directed the
excavations at Fengate, Flag Fen was discovered between 1971-1981 and onwards. In 1986 he
began to set up the Fenland Archaeology trust which has been set up to help fund and look
after Flag Fen. Flag Fen has a Roman road which ran across the Fens which now runs partly
along side Britain’s main road the A1, the roman road is now around 2000 years old.
It also has a show room with timber from the foundations of bronze age houses that has
been preserved, from which are coming out of the ground what is part of the homes of the
bronze age settlement. Flag Fen also has a working farm which still uses some old farming
methods.
Aerial photographs taken after the second world war, but showed
that the old pre-war gravel pits was just a tiny part of the large ancient landscape.
Importance of the Peterborough fen-edge was first revealed by chance discoveries during
gravel digging. The site of flag Fen was discovered by uneven crops in the area so they
started a digging program in 1971. The pegs and markers at the digging site were taken by
gypsy’s to fuel there fire so they made sure they protected the site on the next dig.
Flag Fen was actually situated on an island in what was the wash but now what is part of
East Anglia. Most of the Bronze age settlement is now covered up by the power station and
commercial sites.
