The Parish of Old Warden Before 1086

The Hill House March 2008

Stone and Bronze Ages

The earliest evidence of any human presence in what is now Old Warden was a Neolithic axe found in the 1970s in a field near The Hill House. The axe is now in the museum at Hitchin [Hertfordshire]. There may be a Bronze Age ring-ditch in the parish just west of the A1 between Brookland Farm and the Golf Driving Range and when Horton Preparatory School was at Ickwell Bury a bronze hoard was deposited there which was said to have come from the borders of Northill and Old Warden. The hoard comprises two socketed axes and a ribbed palstave.

Romano-British Period

A group of cremation burials with Roman amphora were found just north-west of Quints Hill, near a possible Roman Road running from Biggleswade to Warden Street. During the excavation of Old Warden Railway Tunnel in the 1850s a mirror, along with amphorae and Roman coins were discovered.