Great Western Park GeoCache Series

Before construction began at the Great Western Park (GWP) development in Didcot, a comprehensive series of archaeological investigations took place, leading to extensive excavations that aimed to preserve and document the archaeological treasures of our area.

The results of these explorations have unveiled a treasure trove of insights, including glimpses into Roman life, the discovery of Roman coins and the revelation of ancient agricultural technology from the Roman period. Not stopping there, also uncovered were Anglo-Saxon pot shards, fragments of fired clay loom weights and valuable insights into the lives of our ancestors through the analysis of animal bone remains. These findings shed light on the early history of Didcot, revealing the roots of our community and the first farmers that established themselves in the area.

To discover more about the fascinating heritage of Great Western Park, we are placing a series of GeoCaches near these archaeological sites. You may also delve into the findings through the informative information boards at waypoints, which uncover the remarkable results of these explorations.

Great Western Park #6 - The First Farmers in Didcot

Farming was first introduced to Britain about 6000 years ago. The wheat and barley, and the sheep and goats, raised by the first farmers came originally from western Asia - and it took around 3000 years for the farming of these species, alongside pigs and cows, to spread across Europe and finally reach Britain. Before this date people lived by hunting and gathering (see Board 2).

The transition from hunting and gathering to farming is usually associated with other changes. In many countries, the first farmers were also the first people to use pottery and to make axes by polishing stone - and they were the first people to build permanent villages.

Small pits found at Great Western Park, dating from just after the introduction of farming to Britain, provide us with intriguing evidence for this momentous change, and suggest that in Britain it took a quite particular form.

Trees, fields and offerings

One exceptional pit at Great Western Park might provide evidence of rituals associated with this early agriculture. The pit contained a complete pot - amongst the earliest from Britain - which had been placed upside-down on the bottom of the pit.

Strikingly, the pit had been cut into a filled tree-throw hole - a hole formed as the result of a tree being either blown or pulled over. The first farmers would have had to clear woodland to make fields, and they may have done so by killing trees by removing a ring of bark, and then pulling them over once they were dead - creating a tree-throw hole. The upside down pot may, then, have been an offering, perhaps placed in the pit to ensure the fertility of the newly cleared land. Nothing was found inside the pot, but any organic material (such as an offering of food) would have quickly decayed.

Summer camps and winter houses

The other pits at Great Western Park contained much more mundane material - broken bits of pottery, discarded flint tools, a fragment of a polished stone axe, scraps of burnt animal bone, stray charred grains of wheat and barley, and charred hazel nutshell and crab apple pips - rubbish discarded by early farmers who must have lived nearby.

The earliest farmers in Britain built large rectangular timber houses (like the example found at Yarnton show on this board). No traces of any such building were found at Great Western Park, however, and it seems that the debris in the pits comes from more temporary occupation. The tools in the pits include serrated flint flakes which have a distinctive gloss on their edges which is produced when the tools are used to harvest crops such as wheat and barley. The pits may mark the site of temporary camps, near the fields where wheat and barley were grown, which were occupied whilst the crops grew or perhaps when they were harvested. The harvested grain may then have been stored over winter in large houses such as the one at Yarnton.

Timeline:

Information sources:

https://westernvalleyparish.gov.uk/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/1_FirstFarmers.pdf

https://westernvalleyparish.gov.uk/the-parish/parish-history/

About the Cache:

This is our 6th placed GeoCache and any comments and suggestions are welcome.

Please bring your own pen, and open & close the cache lid carefully and properly so the cache can survive longer. The cache is close to a very busy walking path, so please be safe and expect muggles nearby at most time of a day.

Please also replace exactly as found due to obvious reason, and please be careful with the possible thorns, stinging nettles, and overhead tree branches! Long sleeves, trousers, and gloves are recommended.

You do not need to cross any fence or enter any private land.

Thank you and enjoy GeoCaching!

FTF: Congratulations to Beechtrees for the FTF on 12 June 2025!