The prehistoric, Roman, and Anglo-Saxon periods were all represented in
an excavation carried out in the center of a Worcestershire village some
time ago, but with results that can now be seen in new light because of
all the archaeological work that has taken place since. A deep Iron Age
ditch can be set in the context of enclosures revealed, mainly by air
photography, of the gravel terraces in the river valleys of the Severn
and Avon. The Romano-British skeletons form a small, elderly and
hard-worked group, providing a contrast to the better-known large urban
cemeteries. The growing of crops on an increasingly large scale has been
demonstrated for the seventh to ninth centuries A.D., and at Fladbury
the complex arrangements made to dry grain on what is known to have been
a large and important estate show the resources put into feeding royal,
aristocratic, and ecclesiastical households.