Westminster Life: Digging deeper into Peterborough's history
“celebrate something genuinely world class on our doorstep”
Bronze Age treasures beneath our feet are finally getting the protection they deserve, writes Andrew Pakes MP.
Outside our city, Peterborough's history doesn't always get the credit it's due, so it's worth pausing this week to celebrate something genuinely world class on our doorstep.
Flag Fen is one of the most important Bronze Age sites in Europe, home to a 3,500-year-old timber causeway built by our ancestors for reasons archaeologists are still piecing together. I've championed this site in Parliament since I was elected, because I believe Peterborough's history deserves national recognition, and this week that case was heard.
The Government has confirmed £700,000 of funding, via Historic England and Defra's Countryside Stewardship Heritage Service, for a major new excavation at Flag Fen. I was delighted to welcome Farming Minister Stephen Morgan MP to Peterborough last Thursday to see the site for himself and announce this investment in person. It matters that ministers come to our city rather than simply issuing a press release from Westminster, and as I told him, this couldn't come at a more critical time. It was great to have all the partners for this project present, including Peterborough Council leader Cllr Dr Shabina Qayyum.
Since 2012, Flag Fen has sat on Historic England's Heritage at Risk Register, and drying peat and falling groundwater now threaten catastrophic loss of the ancient wood and organic remains preserved there for millennia. Experts warn that without action, a significant share of what's left could be gone within a few short years.
This new funding changes that. It means archaeologists can open the largest excavation area in the site's history, a six-month dig examining the western post alignment, recording evidence before it disappears for good and finally helping us understand why our Bronze Age forebears built such a monumental structure across the fen. It's brilliant news for our shared history and for the next generation of Peterborough schoolchildren who will get to learn from what's uncovered.
It also connects directly to work I've been doing with our new tourism board. By bringing together the main visitor attractions and arts bodies for the city, we are better able to collaborate, bring in more funding and bring more people into Peterborough. Thank you to all of the partners involved in this shared endeavour. Flag Fen is one of the partner attractions in that strategy, and the long-term ambition is clear: get this site off the at-risk register, turn it into a destination that does justice to its global significance, and make sure the economic benefits are felt here in Peterborough, not just talked about in London. We are also working with the tourism players across Cambridgeshire and Visit England on a new countywide tourism body, recognising the huge potential of our visitor economy, already worth £2 billion and 40,000 jobs across the region.
Heritage, tourism and jobs aren't separate issues; in a city like ours they're the same story. Flag Fen has survived 3,500 years. With this funding, and with Peterborough finally telling its own story with confidence, it will survive a good deal longer.