Willingham Mere

The early prehistoric fen environment was very different to the landscape of today. Consisting of rivers, marsh, reed-beds and small islands, the area was a rich and diverse area providing a rich source of food and subsistence much of which continued until the fens were drained. During the earlier Late Neolithic (c. 2400-1800 BC) and Bronze Age periods (c. 1800-1000 BC) there is evidence of people living on the small islands of gravel and higher ground in the area.

Although very few of their houses and settlements have been found, several burial sites have been discovered and include the Neolithic long barrow at Haddenham and the Bronze Age barrows and Over and Needingworth. Food sources included water birds, fish and eels. In the summer months, water-meadows were used for grazing cattle, and at Earith we have evidence for horse breeding during the Iron Age. During the Iron Age we also know that people were trapping wild beaver for their fur.

Environmental evidence from Upper Delphs to the north of Willingham Mere tell us that during the later 1st century BC the area was flooded with freshwater leading to the abandonment of some of the settlements near to modern Willingham, although places like Queensholme were still being occupied. It was not until the middle of the 2nd century AD – over 150 years later – that the area was reoccupied; however, flooding returned again in the late 4th century AD.

Two meres are recorded in Willingham prior to drainage of the area. The larger, located northwest of the village and where we are excavating, measured 350 acres; however it is likely the mere measured only 80 acres during the summer months. In the 13th century Willingham Mere was an important ‘open water’ fishery and was still 5m deep in the 16th century and may have survived seasonally until the later 19th century. and of reeds for thatching, as well as a venue for recreation, such as skating during the winter months.

Environmental boreholes across across the former mere show that it consists of layers of peat over a metre thick, clay and silty marl. This marl layer, about 85cm thick, contains a lot of shell and together form the distinctive white deposit that shows up very clearly against the darker peat on aerial photos. Wood and preserved organic matter has also been found in the peat. Radiocarbon dating of an upper organic layer gave a date from the Early Roman period calibrated to the years 15-115 cal. AD, and from a deeper deposit a date from the Late Bronze Age/Early Iron Age 825-790 cal. BC.

What are we looking for? We are excavating the remains of prehistoric fen and mere deposits to search for preserved wood, plant and pollen remains, as well as the bones of fish, mammals and birds that would have lived at Willingham Mere thousands of years ago.

Archaeologists working nearby at Ouse Fen and the Upper Delphs have uncovered the bones of beaver and wetland bird species species that were targeted by Iron Age and then Roman hunters around 2000 years ago. We think that these species were being taken from Willingham Mere and that the locality would have been a diverse and wildlife-rich wetland.

Some of the birds that were excavated are now extremely rare – bittern, marsh harrier are two such which are making a return to the Hanson RSPB wetland at Ouse Fen. Remains of the giant Dalmatian pelican (which had a wing span of over 3 metres) have also been found nearby – today these are world endangered and no longer found in the UK.

These species all indicate that large areas of open water and reed bed habitat existed here 2000 years ago.

By studying all the layers we are able to show changes to the wetland through time. The pollen evidence for Alder (Alnus) is abundant in the lower organic silt but is much less frequent in the upper silts. We think this means at an early stage – perhaps 3000 years ago – the wetland would have been an Alder carr woodland and we are hoping to excavate preserved wood from these trees. In comparison, the pollen of Sedges and bur-reed (Cyperaceae and Sparganium) are less well represented in the lower silts and much stronger in the upper organic silt – suggesting a change to a wetter period of open fen species when woodland declined.