Great Bradley in the Stone Age

Generally, the most important necessity for living, and the one which often decided the site of a village, was water. Great Bradley was probably no exception. It must have been sited where it is for two reasons. First, it was close to the river, which was likely to have been drinkable during the initial settlement; and secondly, the river here was shallow enough for people to cross, as it still is today. There is evidence that people lived close to the glaciers as early as the period between the second and third glaciations, but it is not until the change in climate at the end of the last period of glaciation, at about 5,000 years ago, that agriculture as we know it came into being. The first recorded people in the area are the Bell-Beaker people from Holland in about 3400BC. The earliest evidence of occupation in the area was the find of a 'pick' near to Bradley Park Wood

For the early settlers the river would have been quite a draw: fast flowing and clear with easy crossing points ­ an ideal place to settle, perhaps by making a clearing in the woods of the valley.  Neighbouring Little Bradley has been the subject of archaeological excavation and there is strong evidence of pre-historic settlement. The same is true for Kedington further down the valley. A find of a Neolithic  (new stone age) arrow head has been recorded by the Victoria History, and a flint scraper has been recovered from the field behind the Old Rectory.

It should be remembered though that the  woodland and the clay soils would have made the area quite difficult to cultivate and live in with just stone tools. Other parts of Suffolk, where the soil was lighter, were more densely populated than round Great Bradley