An archaeological dig on the site of BIOGEN (UK) Ltd’s new bio-fertiliser tank near Twinwoods Business Park, Milton Ernest, Bedfordshire has revealed evidence of human occupation dating back more than 2,000 years. Staff at Albion Archaeology have uncovered the remains of an Iron Age settlement, with storage pits for holding food and two small quarry pits for extracting clay, perhaps to make pottery. No houses could be identified, but pottery (see photo), butchery waste and a loom-weight that would have been used for weaving all show that people once lived here. A number of post-holes revealed across the site were probably associated with sheltering or tethering animals. 

As well as the Iron Age settlement, a pit was found containing a flint arrowhead, which would have been used by Bronze Age hunter-gatherers. Links with more recent history can be seen from a trackway that crossed the site — although it was created in the Iron Age, its route across the landscape was still influencing the alignment of field boundaries in the 19th century.