Fire destroys Iron Age roundhouse at Peterborough's Flag Fen
Flag Fen is an important historical landscape which dates from the Bronze Age and it is the site of many archaeological finds. The site had two replica roundhouses – one representing the Bronze Age (2,500 BC - 800 BC) and the other representing the Iron Age (800 BC - AD50).Flag Fen was planning to construct a third. The roundhouse that has been set on fire was built in 2022 with donations from the Arts Council England, the Francis and Maisie Pryor Charitable Trust and Tyrrell Builders. It was based on an Iron Age roundhouse discovered at Cats Water, next to Flag Fen.The educational resource allows people to immerse themselves in history and has about 10,000 children visit each year, the park said.Francis Pryor, who led the original excavations at Flag Fen in 1982, said: "This is a devastating loss to Flag Fen."The roundhouse is an important learning resource for young and old, providing a valuable insight into Iron Age life. "Our primary concern now is to rebuild the roundhouse so that visitors can benefit from this important and unique asset and we experience as little disruption as possible for our educational programme."The park said it would remain open over the summer and fundraising had started for the £50,000 required for a replacement roundhouse.
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