The Stone Age in Milton Keynes.

At school we were told about the Stone Age. (To a young mind an 'age' might seem equivalent to any other 'age' - but the Tudor Age lasted 118 years. The Stone Age around 700,000 years) - There's an excellent account of the different periods within the 'Stone Age' in "An illustrated History of Early Buckinghamshire" - edited by Michael Farley. The Palaeolithic (Old Stone Age) covers most of the period - and includes time when ice covered Milton Keynes. The Mesolithic (Middle Stone Age) covers the period 9000 to 4000 BCE, and the Neolithic (New Stone Age) can be divided into the Earlier Neolithic 4000 BCE - 3250 BCE and the Later Neolithic 3250 BCE - 2300 BCE.

We don't really know much about human activity in the Milton Keynes area during the Palaeolithic period. Several flint hand-axes have been found in gravel pits in the Bletchley area, and flint tools from around 12,000 BCE were found in a quarry at Manor Farm, Wolverton - but as R J Williams wrote - " Unfortunately there is no correlation between the distribution of palaeolithic artefacts and the faunal remains in the area, as all have resulted from chance discoveries, so it has not been possible to identify any pattern of activity for this period."

Significant quantities of Mesolithic flints have been found in the valley's of the three main rivers (see post from 21st February) - the Great Ouse, the Ouzel and Loughton Brook, with concentrations at Bancroft, Little Woolstone and what is now Caldecotte Lake. Mesolithic axes have been found a bit further away from the River Ouzel at Walton and Pennyland, which Williams suggests, " may indicate Mesolithic penetration into the woodland and perhaps the beginnings of woodland clearance on the heavier clay soils away from the river rallies."


With more settled lifestyles coming with the Neolithic age - we have greater evidence of people living permanently in the Milton Keynes areas. What is believed to be a neolithic Cursus was revealed in an extension of the quarry at Manor Farm, Wolverton.

 Before the Roman villa at Bancroft was built, there was neolithic activity on Blue Bridge. At the very end of the period Stacey's Farm area (now Milton Keynes Museum) saw some farming. Other settlements have been identified at Heelands (around 2500 BC) and Secklow