The Celts were the first civilised people to occupy this fertile land of Featherstone. There is much archeological evidence to work from regarding these people, The tribe was known as the Corieltauvi tribe (Brigantes group) and it's origins date back to the stone age in Featherstone. The earlist evidence we have for these people being here are in Purston on this site:-
You can see how the trackway comes to a sudden end for no reason, the trackway was the road into the settlement. This site has recorded finds dating back to prehistoric times which include flint tools and artifacts. The reason stone age people chose this site was because of the water source to the left which once was a river, they needed water to survive for cleaning and drinking. These type of stone age people were known as hunter-gatherers and their origins date back 5000 years. Their source of food was picking berries, wild plants and hunting deer with primative weapons.
Below are two flint scrapers found on this site dating back to the stone age (3000-5000BC)
This next site is in ackton and is a Celtic Romano farmstead viewable as a faint outline in the crop. You can clearly see the out line of the boundary ditch of the rectangle enclosure, a road into the farm and a visable road heading towards Ackton.
These people were iron age people and by this time we had moved on from hunter gathering to farming crops and rearing animals such as chickens, goats, cattle and so forth. These people created the platform for our modern society as it is today and are your ancestors.
Again, the site was chosen because of the river which was once much bigger than the beck that remains today.
The next picture is another Corieltauvi Celtic settlement that dates back to 30BC. Iron age in origin with finds dating to that period found on the site. Chosen because of the lifeline of the river Went and the fertile land. These people also needed water to nurish their crops during dry spells. The central enclosure is rectangular but has been destroyed by farming leaving just a imaginable outline.
There are many more of these sites dotted in and around Featherstone. The Celts did not live in large towns like the Romans did but prefered smaller farms and tiny settlements of maybe 50-100 people. The land was shared equally among themselves. These were the true free people of this land, today we dont have freedom that these people had but we don't have the hardship or desease either. The life expectancy for a man living in those times rarely exceeded about 40 years old, women a little longer round about 50.