Prehistoric Broom

The Bedfordshire Historic Environment Record [HER] has details of all known prehistoric sites and finds in the county. It is now available on-line as part of the Heritage Gateway website.

There have been five separate finds of flint arrowheads in Broom. These may date to the Neolithic or Bronze Age - flint tools and weapons continued to be used in the Bronze Age as flint was more easily acquired than copper and tine, with which to make bronze, and more easily worked. The individual finds are as follows:

• a barbed and tanged arrowhead [HER 16197] found by a farm worker;
• an arowhead [HER 16198] found near Broom;
• a barbed and tanged arrowhead [HER 16199] found near Broom;
• a barbed and tanged arrowhead [HER 16024] found at Capon near Ashcover;
• a barbed and tanged arrowhead [HER 16207] found at Gipsy Lane close to the A1.

An area of extensive cropmarks on gravel west of the River Ivel [HER 631] comprises trackways, mainly running east to west, with small separate enclosures, a block of rectilinear enclosures and ring ditches. The latter are usually regarded as Bronze Age features and may be hut circles or the remains of barrows. The Historic Environment Record says, however, that some of the marks represent Romano-British settlement.