ABSTRACT
This chapter summarises the findings of the Caldecote research project. In spite of their extent, the excavations at Caldecote produced relatively few finds and features of pre-medieval date. A possible Mesolithic flint scraper, indeterminate flakes and a barbed arrowhead of later Neolithic/early Bronze Age date are sufficient to demonstrate a prehistoric presence. Most notable was the Beaker burial with its skeletal remains of a male aged 21-25 years. By the second century AD there must have been a range of Roman sites in the surrounding countryside from farmsteads to settlements of larger size. The economy of Caldecote, dating from earliest times, has been entirely dependent upon agriculture, and its medieval and later agrarian history may be conveniently broken down into four distinct phases. The first dates from the tenth century. The Domesday Survey in 1086 states, that there was an absentee lord holding the demesne, nine villeins, four cottars and a priest.
