The Iron Age came to our area probably well before 100 BC when the Catuvellauni tribe migrated to Britain via Belgium and Northern France bringing with them the knowledge of how to find and smelt Iron ore which produced a metal vastly superior to Bronze for making weapons,tools and utensils.
On Hunsbury Hill 12 miles north of Stony Stratford an Iron Age Settlement used between 100BC and 100AD there has been found much slag from Iron smelting and is reckoned to be a main production centre of the tribe who produced weapons tools and ploughs.
Settlements are known to have been at Fenny Stratford , known as Magiovinium by the Romans, and at Water Eaton and Caldecote, Newport Pagnell.
Sir Frank Markham in his book History of Milton Keynes and District recalls the discovery in 1849 of some 1000 gold coins at Warren Farm , Little Horwood by a local ploughboy, minted by the tribal leader Cassivellaunus in about 40BC. News got out in the pubs and villagers dug up the coins. However, being part of the Whaddon Chase Estate, William Selby Lowndes as landowner claimed the coins and after a police enquiry some 300 coins were recovered by him. One local farmer admitted generations later that the find gave them the capital to expand their farming operations.
There is an Iron age settlement at Narbury Wood only a quarter mile away from the find.
In 2006 another find was made in the same spot by metal detectors which is now in the Discover Bucks Museum in Aylesbury and is illustrated below, showing how bright and detailed the coins are.
The actual making of these gold coins involved huge effort because up to 16th Century every stage was done manually where craftsmen cut out Dies with small images into which the metal was put and then struck skillfully with a hammer.
The process involved artists, engravers smiths , assayers and labourers and smelters.
The Romans were reputed to have 60,000 slaves hacking out rock in one mine in Spain which was almost regarded as a death sentence.