Who lived here? Whathas been found?Archaeology in the ParkUnder
your very Feet
Harrold-Odell Country Park, Carlton Road, Harrold, Beds MK43 7DS
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y H
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Coins, pottery and items such as hair pins, needles,
spindle-whorlsand brooches shed light on the everyday lives of the
formerinhabitants, in addition to dating individual features.
Animalbones and objects like quern stones for grinding corn,
showthat the farming economy hardly changed. But the site
wasprobably never prosperous, and in Roman Times even suffereda
decline of status. There is no way of knowing if the occupantswere
free owners of modest means or whether they weretenants, or indeed
worked for a landlord who lived elsewhere.
PotsA cemetery outside the settlement containedfive graves with
cremated human remains.These contained 28 pots with a variety
ofgrave offerings which would mostly havecontained food and
drink.
The WellThe best preserved of these are later in datefrom the
6th Century AD and were lined withlimestone and hazel, dogwood or
willowframework to prevent the soil collapsinginwards. To reach the
water a ladder,remains of which were found in one well,and oak
buckets were used - The oakbuckets may have been carved from a
single piece of oak.
Late iron age and Romano Britishfarmstead from 1st century BC
tofourth century AD. There was earliersettlement as well including
circularditched funeral monument.
There was a break in settlement fromthe end of the 4th century
until the Saxons came in the 6th century.
Even hundeds of years ago trade would have been important and
pottery and querns (stones for milling flour) have been found on
site from Hertfordshire, the Pennines and abroad.
Villagers
Where in the Park?
The drawings show the type of roundhouse that would have formed
the
homes and these were some 10-12 min internal diameter. These
roundhouses
had hearths and cooking areas and one had a large earth vessel
set in
a water filled pit as an early fridge orcold store! The houses
were enclosed
by a timber palisade, and later, ditches.
Ditches also surrounded the fields and this would have been a
familyrunning a mixed farm to supportthemselves. Later buildings
from
the Roman period would also have been circular and over
this period were knocked down and rebuilt
several times.
By the 4th Century AD the main building was a rectangular
farmhouse with several rooms
The Settlement
VisitorsCentre
MainEntrance
Outline ofsettlement
Outline ofGrebe Lake
N
The farmstead was concentratedbetween the current island inthe
lake and the visitor centre.This area would then havebeen small
arable fields closerto the island, the settlementitself with two
roundhouseshalf way between the islandand the visitor centre
andstock yards towards the visitor centre.
Underneath theLake
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