Throughout 1998, the Field Group of the Birmingham and Warwickshire Archaeological Society continued with its archaeological survey of the area east of Sutton Coldfield. The study area is about 16kmē, making it the largest area of non-recreational open space within the city of Birmingham. The study area occupies the eastern part of the parish of Sutton Coldfield; it is bounded to the south and west by the urban districts of Minworth, Walmley, Roughley, Whitehouse Common and Hill, and to the north and east by the Birmingham city boundary.The main method employed during this study is fieldwalking, involving walking over ploughed field surfaces recovering material such as prehistoric worked flint and Roman and medieval pottery, allowing us to build up a picture of land usage throughout the ages. The topography and other features of each field are also recorded, along with more detailed recording of individual earthworks. So far about 6.5 kmē of the total study area has been surveyed, of which about 4.5 kmē has also been fieldwalked. The results of this study are added to the Sites and Monuments Record, Birmingham's archaeological database, and will ultimately be published in the Society's Transactions.
In 1998 areas around Springfield Farm and Lindridge Road were surveyed and fieldwalked.
The worked flint recovered from fieldwalking has been examined by the Society's president, Lawrence Barfield. Most of the prehistoric worked flint has been identified as being of predominantly late Neolithic type (c.2,500 BC), with smaller quantities of Mesolithic type (c.8,000-4,000 BC). A single piece from Wishaw Lane may be Palaeolithic (pre-8,000 BC).
Although most of the prehistoric worked flints are waste flakes scattered throughout the study area, which are likely to be the result of tool maintenance during hunting expeditions away from a base camp, several Neolithic flint tools (all scrapers) have been found in the southern part of the study area, including one from Fox Hollies which has been re-touched as a knife. No Mesolithic tools have been identified in the present study. Flint cores (from which flint flakes and tools were struck) of late Mesolithic type were found near Wiggins Hill, which indicate a site of flint tool manufacture and therefore of settlement - probably a temporary base-camp for hunting. Accumulations of Neolithic cores from Hermitage Farm, Wiggins Hill and Fox Hollies also imply areas of flint tool manufacture and therefore of settlement. However the Neolithic period differs from the Mesolithic in that agriculture is practised, therefore a settlement is likely to have been a more permanent affair than in the Mesolithic period.
Concentrations of heat-shattered stones and charcoal discovered previously during fieldwalking at four sites in the study area indicate 'burnt mound' sites. Although their purpose is uncertain, the most likely interpretation is that of debris from saunas in which water was poured onto heated stones to produce steam as seen among many North American Indian tribes. Radiocarbon dating of charcoal deposits from similar sites in Birmingham dates them to the Middle Bronze Age of (c.1,500-1,000 BC). Whatever their interpretation, burnt mounds indicate the density of settlement sites during this period.
Although no Roman pottery was produced during fieldwalking in 1998, discrete concentrations have previously been noted around Hermitage Farm, Wiggins Hill Farm and in the "Burrels" fields (which may represent vestiges of a Roman or earlier field system), which would have been deposited in these fields due to manuring with domestic debris from a nearby Roman settlement. Although the quantities of pottery are too small to pinpoint a Roman farmstead, they do suggest that these fields were arable in the Roman period, and it follows that there must have been nearby settlements from which the fields were farmed - possibly on the sites of Hermitage Farm, Fairview and in the vicinity of Wiggins Hill.
This year, fieldwalking produced a small quantity of medieval pottery north of Langley Hall which is also consistent with manuring from a nearby medieval settlement, although none has yet been found in fields north of Lindridge Road. Previous fieldwalking produced a widespread scatter of medieval pottery throughout the study area, with sufficient quantities around Hermitage Farm and Wiggins Hill Farm to suggest medieval settlement sites. Additional 'ridge-and-furrow' was recorded north of Lindridge Road, which may indicate an area of medieval cultivation in which fields were farmed in ridged strips.
Although the distributions of Neolithic, Roman and Medieval material recovered from Wiggins Hill and Hermitage Farm suggest continuity of land use, this does not necessarily mean that the land was cultivated continuously; the same areas of land may have been abandoned and then brought back into cultivation on several occasions, as the perception of what was good agricultural land in these periods would have been the same. Consequently, settlement in the study area may have been intermittent rather than continuous.
Clay pits and debris from brick and tile manufacture were noted near Barn Farm, which are likely to have been associated with its construction in the 19th century.
Finally, the Society would like to thank those volunteers involved in the survey, and the landowners and their tenants for their invaluable co-operation.
Terry Jones
Honorary Field Group Secretary