· The Society's Field Group ·
The 'East of Sutton' Survey
Interim Report No. 3, December 1997
Throughout 1997, the Field Group of the Birmingham and Warwickshire Archaeological Society continued with its archaeological survey of the area east of Sutton Coldfield - the largest area of non-recreational open space within the City of Birmingham. The survey area is bordered to the south and west by the urban areas of Minworth, Walmley, Roughley, Whitehouse Common and Hill, and to the north and east by the Birmingham city boundary.
The main method we employ is fieldwalking, involving walking over ploughed field surfaces recovering material such as prehistoric flint and Roman and medieval pottery, allowing us to build up a picture of land usage throughout the ages. This is accompanied by recording of the topography, land use and characteristics of each field, with more detailed recording of individual earthworks. In 1997 we were able to survey and field-walk large areas of land around Old Langley Hall, Ox Leys Farm and Fox Hollies. The results of the survey thus far have been added to the Sites and Monuments Record, Birmingham’s archaeological database, and will ultimately be published in the Society's Transactions.
Field-walking around Fox Hollies and Grove End produced a variety of worked flints (mostly waste flakes from flint tool manufacture) from the latter part of the Mesolithic period of 6,000-4,000 BC. Also two flint tools from the late Neolithic period of roughly 2,000 BC were recovered from Fox Hollies - the first Neolithic material found during this survey, the rest being exclusively Mesolithic in character. The Neolithic flints would be contemporary with farming communities, whereas the Mesolithic flints would have been used by nomadic hunter-gatherers.
Field-walking has also revealed concentrations of heat-shattered stones and charcoal at both Fox Hollies and Wiggins Hill Farm, which indicate two 'burnt mound' sites. Burnt mounds are the accumulation of debris from heating water (for cooking, industrial processes or, most likely, steam production for bathing) using heated stones, which would shatter when immersed in cold water, leaving a characteristically irregular profile. Radio carbon dating of the charcoal deposits from similar sites in Birmingham dates them to the middle Bronze Age of around 1,500-1,000 BC.
Field-walking near Ox Leys Farm revealed concentrations of Roman pottery in the "Burrels" fields (previously suggested to be of Roman origin), separate from the distribution at Hermitage Farm which points to there being another Roman settlement further to the west, possibly in the vicinity of Fairview. However, these concentrations of Roman pottery are not large enough to allow us to pinpoint a Roman settlement with any great precision, they are significant enough to show that these fields were cultivated in the Roman period, and it follows that there must be a nearby settlement from which the fields were farmed. This pottery would have been deposited in these fields due to manuring with domestic debris from a nearby settlement.
Field-walking around Grove End (a hamlet of medieval origin) produced a significant quantity of medieval pottery. Also at Grove End, a hollow way (
) was identified, which is of medieval origin. A thin scatter of medieval pottery was also discovered around Fox Hollies which is also consistent with manuring from a nearby medieval settlement. Fields at Holly Lane were identified as having 'reversed-S' hedgerows (
), which were planted along lines of earlier medieval cultivation. Field-walking in these fields produced a small quantity of medieval pottery.
These fields also contain the original medieval parish boundary which survives as a prominent ditch (
). In fields north of Ox Leys Road, part of the original medieval road edge also survives as a depression running alongside the present road edge (
).
Earlier this year, the remains of a stone structure with associated earthworks were investigated near Old Langley Hall (
) which, combined with analysis of field names on early 19th century maps indicates a possible water mill site with an associated mill pool. Also recorded was a house platform (
) of unknown date at Grove End.
This year, the Field Group was assisted by members of other societies (including the Young Archaeologists' Club), as well as by various individuals, to whom the Society is grateful. Finally, the Society would like to extend its thanks to landowners and their tenants for their co-operation, without which this survey could not go ahead.
Terry Jones
Honorary Field Group Secretary
The main method we employ is fieldwalking, involving walking over ploughed field surfaces recovering material such as prehistoric flint and Roman and medieval pottery, allowing us to build up a picture of land usage throughout the ages. This is accompanied by recording of the topography, land use and characteristics of each field, with more detailed recording of individual earthworks. In 1997 we were able to survey and field-walk large areas of land around Old Langley Hall, Ox Leys Farm and Fox Hollies. The results of the survey thus far have been added to the Sites and Monuments Record, Birmingham’s archaeological database, and will ultimately be published in the Society's Transactions.
