Neolithic / Bronze Age
So far no direct evidence of activity from this period has been found on the site. However, during the excavation of a gravel quarry about 1km to the west of today’s Chester Farm, an old river course was identified.
Samples from this produced pollen that allowed archaeologists to reconstruct the landscape at this period.
The picture that emerges is one dominated by Lime trees, like those growing on the site today, with periodic episodes during which the trees were felled and then the land was set to grass, before trees grew again. During the early Bronze Age, grass came to dominate the landscape, suggesting that the area was increasingly grassland, perhaps for grazing.
The only monument from this period in the immediate area was a single Bronze Age burial under a round barrow (a mound of earth) that was found on the flood plain about 500m to the west of the site. This burial dated to the early Bronze Age.