Sutton Park
he Society's last visit to the wealth of archaeological remains in Sutton Park was in 1982, so by special request the President
led a guided walk in March around the northern side of the park. Sutton Park originated as a deer park in the 12th century, and
its subsequent use for recreation, livestock grazing and as a source of wood has ensured the preservation of archaeological
remains of all periods, most of which survive as earthworks and can therefore be studied without excavation.
The walk started near Bracebridge Pool, where we saw the bank and ditch boundary around Pool Hollies, one of the coppices enclosed during the 16th century to protect them from grazing animals. An even earlier earthwork, a subdivision of the deer park, runs through the wood. Further on is a group of mounds of heat-shattered pebbles, "burnt mounds". Similar sites in other parts of Birmingham have been dated by radiocarbon to between 1200 and 1000 BC. The boundary of the 12th-century deer park survives as a bank and ditch along the present north and west boundaries of Sutton Park.
The creation of the deer park resulted in the preservation of part of the Roman Icknield Street. The road's gravel bank, flanking ditches and quarry pits can be seen. The road is crossed by a 19th century railway line and by the boundary of Streetly Wood, another of the 16th century coppices.
Jill Crees