Early History
Evidence dating from the Neolithic period tells us that people have lived and worked on Farthing Downs for over 6,000 years.
The Neolithic and Bronze Age people who first settled on Farthing Downs started to clear trees to make space for small farms.
Eventually a patchwork of small fields developed. This 'Celtic Field System' is mainly attributed to the Iron Age, which spanned the period of 700 BC to AD 43, although if continued to be used into the Romano-British period. Over time the action of ploughing created earth banks and ditches, some of which can still be seen today.
The Celtic Field System had fallen out of use by the Saxon period, but the presence of Saxon burial mounds indicates that Farthing Downs was still open rather than wooded. The burial mounds would have been visible for miles around.
In medieval times commoners used Farthing Downs as rough pasture for their livestock, a practice that continued into the 19th Century.
( photo caption )
- An artist's impression of an Anglo-Saxon Barrow

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