Observation and excavation, 1975

Discoveries in 1930 had found evidence for Early Iron Age occupation alongside what was then the Great North Road (replaced in the mid-1960s by the A1(M)). While a water pipeline was being constructed in 1975, the opportunity was taken to examine its route for archaeological remains. Further Early Iron Age ditches and pits were recorded in the pipe trench.

Work by Letchworth Museum, 1988-9

Later, in 1988-9, larger-scale excavations by North Herts Museums Service at the summit of Jack’s Hill revealed a stretch of the gravelled surface and drainage ditches of a Roman road with, nearby and on the same alignment, the ditch of an Early Iron Age road. The digs have shown that, at this point, the course of the Great North Road/A1 has Roman and Iron Age predecessors going back to at least 500 BC, if not before.