Flag Fen Futures

A ten-year strategy to research and revitalise Flag Fen Archaeology Park
2025 - 2035

An Introduction

Flag Fen is one of Britain’s foremost Bronze Age monuments and the largest wooden prehistoric structure in the country.

The story so far...

The story of Flag Fen begins in 1971 when excavations ahead of the construction of Peterborough New Town revealed an almost intact Bronze Age landscape, which ran along the edge of the drained fen. Then in November 1982, archaeologists surveying out in the depths of the basin came across timbers of what was to prove to be an internationally important site - Flag Fen

The monument found incorporates a post-alignment, made up of at least five parallel rows of posts (1.1km long and 10m wide), and a platform, comprising a widespread, multi-layered distribution of horizontal timbers. The post-alignment spans the northern neck of the Flag Fen Basin and involves an estimated 22,000 axe- sharpened posts or piles, the bulk of which are oak.

Archaeological decline
The timbers forming the internationally-significant Flag Fen post-alignment are degrading. There is now a risk of catastrophic loss to the preserved archaeology. Flag Fen is the largest known wooden prehistoric structure in the UK, yet, the kilometre-long post-alignment and its enigmatic platform have only ever been partially investigated. Time is running out fast if we want to properly understand this truly remarkable monument and its equally remarkable history of deposition.

The Flag Fen Futures project team will put conservation and public value centre stage in our plans.

Our vision:

Flag Fen is revealed and revitalised, it is a hive of discovery and learning, exciting and innovative, respectful of the past and open to new narratives. Inclusive and welcoming, where new connections with people and place can be made. Flag Fen is a destination for discovery and relaxation which people treasure and come back to time and time again.

What do we want to do?
  • Establish the best and most exemplary public participation and archaeology research there has ever been in the UK
  • Deliver 10 years of exemplary research to the highest standards
  • Create a new narrative framework to tell the story of Flag Fen
  • Provide new visitor offerings to ensure accessibility to Flag Fen at all levels

Can you support Flag Fen Futures?

People will be central to everything we do throughout the project. Funding will enable Flag Fen and the archives to be made accessible to all, provide a wide range of opportunities for public participation and will also provide the resources needed to research and look after the archaeology for future generations. Please can you help fund:

  • Projects that will help support local people’s wellbeing and learning opportunities through volunteering
  • Build volunteer welfare facilities
  • Projects that will contribute to creating new accessible infrastructure
  • Repair Fourth Drove access road so that Flag Fen can reconnect with Peterborough once more and be accessible by public transport
  • Archaeological research
  • Help us to renew the Mere, create new wetland habitats and protect the buried archaeology
  • And much more…

If you would like to support Flag Fen, either through volunteering your time, corporate volunteering or financial support, please contact

flagfenfutures@peterboroughlimited.co.uk

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