Higham Gobion Before 1086

A reconstruction of an Iron 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 of settlement in the area might come from a few worked flint flakes which might date any time from the Mesolithic to the Iron Age [HER 9348] as flint tools were used throughout prehistory as the resource was plentiful and the process of making the tools, by anyone with the skill, was much faster than working in metal.

Cropmarks observed from aerial photographs in fields south of the settled area show a complex group of polygonal enclosures [HER 17112]. Another cropmark north-east of Faldo Farm and thus now in the civil parish of Barton-le-Clay, shows a circular enclosure with a diameter of 60 metres [HER 16654]. Both these features seem likely to be prehistoric but without excavation they cannot be more certainly dated.

Two areas of Higham Gobion have produced evidence of Iron Age settlement. North-west of the settled area Iron Age pottery sherds have been discovered by field walking [HER 9349]. South of the village a roughly rectangular enclosure is visible on aerial photography and this yielded more Iron Age pot sherds on field walking [HER 9350].

Around the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries Roman items were found in Higham Gobion, though it is unknown precisely where [HER 411]. They comprised a 1st-2nd century AD vessel containing a cremation and a coin, sadly undated by the finder. A single sherd of Roman pottery has also been found in the area [HER 9351].