Beneath the fields of Broadway lies a remarkable story, one that stretches back over 8,000 years and reveals how people gradually transformed this landscape from a place of movement and survival into one of settlement, farming and community.
These discoveries were made in 2016, not through a search for the past, but through a project designed to protect Broadway’s future. Excavations were carried out in advance of the Environment Agency’s flood alleviation works along Badsey Brook, a scheme developed to reduce the risk of flooding to hundreds of local homes and businesses. As earth was moved to build embankments and manage water flow, an archive of human history was uncovered, preserved just beneath the surface.
A Landscape of Early People: Mesolithic to Neolithic (c. 6500–3400 BC)
The earliest evidence from the site and our exhibition, comes from a time when Britain was inhabited by small groups of hunter-gatherers. Flint tools and manufacturing debris show that people visited this area thousands of years ago, making and using tools from locally available stone, and flint that they brought with them.
These early communities did not settle permanently. Instead, they moved through the landscape, following seasonal resources, hunting animals, gathering plants, benefiting from the fruit and nuts trees growing in the fertile vale and shaping their environment in subtle ways. The finds here represent fleeting moments of activity: the making of tools, the use of fire, and the rhythms of a mobile way of life.
Changing Beliefs and Technologies: Neolithic to Early Bronze Age (c. 3000–1500 BC)
Over time, new ideas and practices began to emerge. The discovery of a finely decorated Beaker pot, along with flint arrowheads and tools, points to a period of transition. This was an age when metalworking first appeared in Britain and when personal possessions and burial practices became more elaborate.
Crouched burials found on the site, suggest changing beliefs about death and identity. These finds reflect a society in transition; no longer purely mobile, but not yet fully settled, where new technologies and traditions were reshaping daily life.
The First Settlers: Later Bronze Age to Iron Age (c. 1500–500 BC)
The clearest shift in lifestyle is seen in the remains of roundhouses and field systems. Circular ditches, once used to drain water from thatched roofs, mark the positions of homes; evidence of people living here more permanently.
Surrounding these houses were pits for storage and waste, along with enclosures likely used for livestock. This was a farming landscape, carefully organised and managed. For the first time, we see communities rooted in place, cultivating land and raising animals.
This transition from hunter-gatherer to settled farmer is one of the most significant developments in human history and it is vividly illustrated here at Broadway.
A Connected Landscape: Roman Britain (c. AD 43–300)
During the Roman period, the site became part of a wider, interconnected world. Evidence of a farmstead, enclosures, and droveways shows a well-structured agricultural system, while pottery from both local and distant sources reflects trade and cultural exchange.
The remains suggest a thriving rural settlement, likely linked to larger communities nearby. Yet by the later Roman period, this activity declined. The appearance of burials within former settlement features indicates that the land’s use was changing once again.
New Beginnings: Saxon Settlement (c. AD 500–800)
After a period of change, new settlers arrived. Rectangular buildings and everyday objects such as loomweights point to Saxon occupation. These rare finds provide valuable insight into early medieval life, when communities were once again establishing themselves in the landscape.
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