Palaeolithic

​The site of Chester Farm owes its attractiveness as a place for human activity and settlement to the Ice Age (more than 12,000 years ago).

At that time, seasonal meltwater rivers gouged valleys into the countryside and the current river Nene flows in the base of one of these.

At the same time, the seasonal melt produced springs that gushed from the valley sides, eroding their own smaller valleys that can be seen as you walk across the site.

This period was a time of extremes of weather and human activity was limited.  However in amongst the gravels of the flood plain, many traces of life from this period have been recovered. These include flint tools used by the people, as well as the bones of the large mammals that wandered the land such as mammoth and woolly rhino.