Lapworth Museum of Geology

 

We had a great day at the University of Birmingham's Lapworth Museum of Geology on Saturday. We were provided with refreshments on arrival then began our guided tour with curator John Clatworthy.

Starting in the main hall we were told about the history of the building from its beginnings as workshops, through to its use for housing ambulances and finally to its use as a museum.

We looked at some rare fossils from the early periods of life on earth and also the famous ‘teenager’ Allosaurus, with its foot and rib injuries. Next we came to the ‘wall of stones’, which shows examples of many different igneous, sedimentary and metamorphic rocks, weighing in at over 3 tons in total.

We moved on to the minerals section which is conveniently arranged in colour order and contains wonderful exhibits from all over the world, including a lead mine in Shropshire. According to John, some of them are exceptionally valuable, with individual specimens worth tens of thousands of pounds. Many fossils and minerals in the collection would have been found by local miners and other workers who would supplement their meagre wages by selling them to mine owners or collectors.

After lunch, we moved into the Museum's private rooms and were shown some stupendous items which are not regularly displayed, including ‘bendy’ flexible sandstone, a sheet of pliable mica and some beautiful jet objects.

 

 

Our visit was concluded with a viewing of many old and unique documents, including original geology maps, top secret WW2 geology maps for the Normandy beach landing sites and workbooks from the 19^th century. 

 

We would like to extend our thanks to John and the Museum for such a wonderful tour. Members of the public can visit the Museum for free and we thoroughly recommend it!

Oak House, West Bromwich

 

Oak House at West Bromwich is a classic 17th century half-timbered house with an excellent visitor centre and gardens. As part of their annual archaeology event at the house, the Council invited us to dig a test pit to search for evidence of earlier occupation and to show members of the public what hands-on archaeology is like. Although the weather was very bad on Tuesday, almost 70 visitors braved the torrential rain to see what we were up to. Over the next two days the rain gradually eased and many more people came to look and talk about our excavation.

We'd been told by staff that during landscaping and construction of the visitor centre, large amounts of rubble had been spread across the site and covered with grass. A pile of rubble left over after that was was simply formed into a neat hillock - like a bronze age burial mound! - and turfed over. The gardeners told us to expect at least half a metre of rubbish before we got to 'the good stuff' and they weren't wrong. Finding a screw top jar and a pair of ladies tights below half a metre was a little disheartening to say the least but we soldiered on in the hope of finding better. By the time we'd finished, our test pit was well over a metre deep but on its western side we were still finding modern and Victorian rubbish right at the bottom.

A dark band representing rubble could still be seen at the bottom of the test pit

It seems the spot we had chosen to dig may have been where rubbish was piled against a bank because the eastern side of the pit gradually became cleaner as we went deeper. This diagram (not to scale)  gives an idea of how our pit cut through the layer of rubble and into the bank:

Notable pottery finds included a few sherds of what seems to be Cistercian ware, several fragments of fine vessels made from Midlands purple ware and a couple of tiny pieces of brown-mottled ware. A number of clay pipe stems and some bowl fragments were recovered as we descended, with the earliest examples perhaps as early as the mid-17th century. While we didn't find any incontrovertible proof of occupation earlier than the standing house, some of the pot-sherds could predate it by several centuries.

Pottery fragments and a very substantial pipe stem

We hope to be digging more test pits at Oak House in the near future, possibly a little closer to the building where we just might find traces of an earlier house.

 

Our test pit was just over the wall  from the formal garden

Albrighton Community Dig

The hot and dry summer of 2018 revealed evidence of previously unknown archaeology across Britain. One such set of 'parch marks' appeared near the crossroads in the middle of Albrighton, Shropshire. These marks and our geophysics survey of the site, suggested a series of pillars and walls which might have been part of the old market hall, pulled down in the early 1800s.

Parch marks visible in the summer of 2018

Over three days in July, with the help of the Albrighton & District Historical Society, we set about digging a series of test pits. On the first day we played host to children from the local primary school who had great fun sieving and cleaning finds and learning about archaeology and history. Over the following two days we were visited by dozens of villagers who were fascinated to see the Society's display and talk to their knowledgeable chairman John Stretton. Many of the children who visited on the first day were so enthralled that they came again on the following days to see what else had been discovered.

We dug three test pits and made interesting discoveries in each. A compacted clay floor and traces of a probable column support were uncovered but the most significant archaeology was discovered in pit #3. After uncovering the remains of a wall foundation, we were thrilled to find a spectacular cobbled surface. This may have been a yard or path associated with the market hall or even part of the old village street, which was part of the Wolverhampton to Holyhead coach road.

A small sondage in the south-west corner of the pit seemed to show that the cobbles had been laid on smaller stone set in clay.

The fantastic cobbled surface uncovered at Albrighton

Finds included pottery sherds and fragments of roof or floor tile from the Medieval era, a Georgian coin, various pieces of glass, pipe stems, a chalk-board stylus (the building was at some point used as a school) and a few pre-industrial era buttons.

A report with photographs can be found on the website of the Shropshire Star and on Albrighton & District Historical Society's Facebook page.

 

East Park Academy Dig

When we team up with local schools to demonstrate archaeology, we inevitably find that the children are absolutely fascinated to learn about what's beneath their feet. So it was with the youngsters at East Park Academy in Stow Heath, who were absolutely thrilled to take part in our dig for their History Week.

 Explaining the basics of archaeology

Sieving the spoil

Sieving the excavated soil is always the most exciting part for children (and adults!) as you never know what might come to light.

As can be seen from the map below, in the early 1800s, the area in which the school now sits was surrounded by iron-smelting furnaces and coal mines. In fact 'Stow Heath Furnace' was literally a stones throw to the east of the site and Chillington Furnace was a little further away on the other side. No surprise then, that blast furnace slag featured amongst our finds but we also found evidence of post-medieval domestic activity, including pottery.

 

This work is based on data provided through www.VisionofBritain.org.uk and uses historical material which is copyright of the Great Britain Historical GIS Project and the University of Portsmouth.

The test pit uncovered lots of building rubble and iron-making slag

One of the things that struck us about our visit was how very well behaved and happy the children were, truly a credit to the staff at East Park, and we were delighted to receive this letter from the Head Teacher:

 

 

Iron Smelting in Britain

 

At our June meeting, Paul Robinson gave a presentation entitled '2,000 Years of Iron Smelting in Britain'. The talk covered the bloomery process in detail from the early Iron Age up until the end of the Medieval Area.

It included a short video of modern day experiments in ancient techniques and samples of various types of bloomery slag were brought along for members to examine.

The final part of the presentation focused on our on-going project at Coven, where strong evidence for ancient iron-smelting has been found during the last year.

Bloomery 'tap slag' recovered at Coven

Isotopes in Archaeology

 

 

A fascinating presentation entitled 'You are what you eat: How isotopes can dish the dirt on you" was given by Dr Kate Farr at our May meeting. As a professional scientist, Kate was able to give a detailed but easy to follow account of what isotopes can reveal about the lives of those in the distant past. Her presentation also covered the forensic use of isotopes in a few recent criminal cases.

Letocetum Guided Tour

 

On Saturday 11th May we met at the Village Hall at Wall for a tour of the Roman settlement of Letocetum. Our guide was Dr Mike Hodder, an archaeologist who has a lifelong association with the site.

Mike was keen to share his knowledge of the development of the camp which was the precursor to the city of Lichfield. He was able to point out features around the village which would probably have gone unnoticed to the untrained eye and described in great detail how the site had grown and then declined. Since parts of the settlement are still to be investigated, we were happy to offer to carry out any geophysical survey that might be needed.

The standing remains are impressive and well worth a visit; parking is not too difficult and there is no charge to visit the site. A small museum adjacent to the ruins has a fascinating collection of Roman artefacts. The local volunteers deserve a big thank you for maintaining the site, organising tours and looking after the museum (and providing a very welcome cup of tea and slice of cake at the end of our visit!).

 A few of the artefacts on display in the museum

The Magic of LiDAR

 

The speaker at our March meeting was Nigel Westwood, who gave a fascinating insight into the development and use of LiDAR in archaeology. Images of Roman camps and roads in South Staffordshire were used to illustrate the value of this tool for those looking into the historical landscape.