The Iron Age in Milton Keynes

I live in Furzton - a modern estate (with a beautiful lake - itself constructed in recent times). Yet I live very close to the site of a settlement which was inhabited during Iron Age times. So do many other people living across Milton Keynes. The archaeologists have found lots of evidence of Iron Age people across the city.

The Iron Age covers the period from around 800 BCE until the Roman invasion of 43 CE (AD). Of course the transitions between the Bronze Age prior to the Iron Age, and the Roman era following it were more gradual than sudden.

There were two settlements in Furzton. The first (probably) was close to the stream - close to where Loughton Brook becomes the Lake. The longer term settlement was just off Dulverton Drive, about 400 metres from the stream side site - and this was excavated in 1987 and 1988. [Full details can be found in the South Midlands Archaeology Journal 1986, 1987 & 1988 - available to download here] This was probably a stockade for animals, with some evidence of human settlement. The weather & the resultant water within the clay made, by all accounts, for a difficult excavation.

Was this an offshoot of a tribal sub-capital at Danesborough? or an unconnected development? Danesborough is scheduled as an Ancient Monument  because it is thought to be of national importance. It has survived well and is a good example of an Early Iron Age fort. It was excavated in 1924. The shape can be described as roughly oval or rectangular with rounded corners. It would have given an extensive view northwards towards Newport Pagnell and Olney - and most of the modern city of Milton Keynes. The local tribe were the Catuvellauni, whose tribal capital was just outside Wheathampstead (which I hope to be writing a post about shortly) and then what is now St Albans.
We don't know whether Danesborough was merely a defensive position or a local centre which was to be eclipsed by the Roman town of Magiovinium.

The settlement at Blue Bridge from the Bronze age seemed to have been in continuous use through the Iron Age.



Pennyland was also home to an Iron Age Settlement. This is described in "An Illustrated History of Early Buckinghamshire"

 and in greater detail in "Pennyland & Hartigans" (which also identifies iron age settlements in Hartigans gravel pit (in the area between Little Woolstone and Milton Keynes Village) Woughton, Wavendon Gate, Caldecotte and Westbury by Shenley)



A 2005 excavation in  Tattenhoe Park also uncovered evidence of a settlement there. That report can be loaded from here.

Just outside Milton Keynes, in Little Horwood parish, the "Whaddon Chase hoard" was found in 1849, containing coins from the period 55-45 BCE.