History of Baldock

The sleepy little town of Baldock has a surprisingly and incredibly rich archaeological heritage. Palaeolithic, Neolithic and Bronze Age settlements show the site of Baldock has been continuously occupied since prehistoric times. Most people believe that Baldock has a history going back to medieval times, but the evidence clearly proves a much longer history.

The earliest monument in Baldock is a narrow Cursus, probably from the middle Neolithic. Cursuses are monumental Neolithic structures resembling ditches or trenches in the islands of Great Britain and Ireland. Relics found within them indicate that they were built between 3400 and 3000 BC, making them among the oldest monumental structures on the islands. The name ‘cursus’ was suggested in 1723 by William Stukeley, the antiquarian, who compared the Stonehenge cursus to a Roman chariot-racing track, or circus.

Cursuses range in length from 50 yards to almost 6 miles. The distance between the parallel earthworks can be up to 100 yards. Banks at the terminal ends enclose the cursus. Over fifty have been identified via aerial photography while many others have doubtless been obliterated by farming and other activities.

The Stonehenge Cursus is a notable example within sight of the more famous Stonehenge stone circle. Other examples are the four cursuses at Rudston in Yorkshire, that at Fornham All Saints in Suffolk, the Cleaven Dyke in Perthshire and the Dorset cursus. The Bures cursus and the Metlands cursus are in Bures St Mary, Suffolk, and were detected from crop marks. They are situated just above the floodplain of the north bank of the River Stour, Suffolk. On December 21 each year the sun rises over Lodge Hills, Wormingford, and shines down the length of the Metlands cursus.

Therefore, the discovery of the Baldock cursus is a good indication as to just how ancient the Baldock area is and how long it has been inhabited.

Iron Age Baldock

At the beginning of the Iron Age there was a hill fort at Arbury Banks, about two and a half miles to the northeast of Baldock that dominated the entire area. In the Late Iron Age, about 100 years BC, the local power base shifted from the hill fort to the vicinity of Baldock. The soil was rich, fertile and easily farmed and transportation was more convenient. In the later part of the middle Iron Age, Baldock became the site of a large Oppidum, arguably the largest such site in Britain. The Oppidum in turn became a sizeable Roman settlement, which although not administratively important, seems to have been a significant cult centre. An oppidum is a large fortified Iron Age settlement. Oppida are associated with the Celtic late La Tène culture, emerging during the 2nd and 1st centuries BC, spread across Europe, stretching from Britain and Iberia in the west to the edge of the Hungarian plain in the east. They continued to be used until the Romans conquered Southern and Western Europe. In regions north of the rivers Danube and Rhine, such as most of Germania, where the populations remained independent from Rome, Oppida continued to be used into the 1st century AD.

The Baldock area is also host to the highest quantity of finds of ancient coins in Hertfordshire after the Verulamium region, which is now modern day St Albans. The site of Baldock was used until the fifth or sixth century. The Roman settlement gradually disappeared and there is no entry for Baldock in the Domesday Book, so it would appear that the area was left uninhabited for some period of time when the Romans left.