Flag Fen Archaeology Park boss ‘heartened’ after roundhouse attack

The boss of an ancient site where a thatched roundhouse replica was razed to the ground by suspected arsonists said she had been “heartened” by the support of the community.

Fire crews were called to Peterborough’s Flag Fen Archaeology Park, which dates back to the Bronze Age, on Sunday night after local people saw flames.

In 2022, 30 volunteers had spent nine months building the Iron Age roundhouse and a fundraising appeal has now been launched to replace it.

“We’re all absolutely devastated at the loss of the roundhouse – so many of our team took part in building it and using it every single day – it was a much-loved thing,” said site manager Jacqueline Mooney.

“However, we are very much seeing this as a ‘phoenix from the ashes’ situation,” she said.

Ms Mooney told the BBC there had been “fantastic” offers of help and donations already from contractors and local people.

“We’ve already got people on site helping us repair one of our old roundhouses so it can take the temporary place of our Iron Age one,” she said.

“We are so heartened by the support we’ve felt from the people of Peterborough and surrounding areas, who are going to help us build a new roundhouse that will be bigger and better.”

Cambridgeshire Fire Service has said the cause of the blaze was thought to be deliberate.

Flag Fen is an important historical landscape which dates back to the Bronze Age and is the site of many archaeological finds.

The park had two replica roundhouses – one representing the Bronze Age (2,500 BC – 800 BC) and the other reflecting the Iron Age (800 BC – AD50).

Flag Fen was also planning to construct a third.

The burnt out replica was based on an Iron Age roundhouse discovered at Cats Water, next to Flag Fen, and featured log seating and a fire pit to replicate how our ancestors lived.

Ms Mooney estimated the total rebuild cost would be about £50,000, with the last one also funded by charitable donations.

About 10,000 school children visit annually and she said she wanted them to be able to resume enjoying their “magical” trips to the site’s Iron Age roundhouse as soon as possible.

She said the staff had previously dealt with a similar situation when arsonists destroyed its education room in 2020.

Ms Mooney said while it had to go without the facility for two years, it was eventually rebuilt “bigger and better” and she hoped it would be the same case for the replacement roundhouse.

Donations were now being asked for and Flag Fen also needed to source water reed and other materials for the rebuilding project, but it also required people to volunteer their time and skills.

“If people have ever wanted to build a roundhouse, now is the time to help,” said Ms Mooney.