Everton Before 1086

 
A reconstruction of a Bronze Age round house at Flag Fen October 2011

The Bedfordshire Historic Environment Record [HER] contains information on the county’s historic buildings and landscapes and summaries of each entry can now be found online as part of the Heritage Gateway website. The earliest evidence for human habitation in the parish dates to the Mesolithic Period. A flint core, from which blades etc had been struck was found by a footpath to the north-east of the village [HER 16040].

Near Potton Road a scatter of worked flints has been found over the years. Flint tools survived the Stone Age as they were comparatively quick to make, they were sharp and the source material was plentiful. The flints found here range in date from the Mesolithic, through the Neolithic to the Bronze Age and include a substantial axe, a large flake, scrapers, a knife, an arrowhead and assorted blades [HER 14657].

Cropmarks, as the name indicates, are features visible in growing crops, representing ditches, walls etc, where the crop grows unevenly. A number of potential prehistoric sites have been identified in the parish though, without excavation, they will remain speculative. They are as follows:

• A complex of mostly rectangular enclosures running south-south-west to north-north-east along a ridge west of Sandy Road with other, possibly related, features to the east [HER 1885]
• A small circular enclosure south-east of Storey Farm [HER 13265];
• Enclosures and ponds along a road; they may be medieval or early modern in date [HER 13626];
• A square enclosure [HER 13634]
• A large rectangular enclosure at Burford Farm [HER 13642];
• Linear marks south-west of Oak Farm [HER 13645];
• A series of small enclosures south of the village [HER 15103];
• Possible enclosures at Woodbury Hall Farm [HER 15106];
• A mass of curved enclosures south of Woodbury Low Farm [HER 16819].

Roman pottery has been found in the parish. Excavation found what may have been a kiln which made it [HER 2002]. Just before a housing development in Church Road trial excavations revealed a series of ditches and pits, one of which contained pottery from around the time of the Norman Conquest. The ditches may have been boundaries and a well was also discovered. Later medieval material was also found in the vicinity showing possible sites for occupation in 14th and 15th century Everton [HER 16126].