Summer Festival

Once again this year we'll be taking part in the Council for British Archaeology's summer Festival and as this is the CBA's 80th anniversary, we plan to hold two events to celebrate. This year's theme is 'Archaeology and Community' and we're really looking forward to welcoming members of the public to our digs.

Despite a reduction in the number of archaeological and historical societies in recent years, we always find that interest in these events is as strong as ever. People of all ages are fascinated to connect with the past in their locality and seeing it literally coming to light before their eyes can have a powerful impact. As the CBA puts it:

"At its heart, archaeology is all about people and how we explore and interpret the past through the lens of the present day. Archaeology has the unique ability to bring people from all walks of life together through our shared sense of community – what it meant in the past, what it means to us now, and how we can shape our future."

As well as welcoming spectators and allowing children to enjoy short participation sessions, we'll be offering a limited number of volunteers the chance to have a full archaeology taster day at each event!

Our digs will each last for three or four days each during the Festival fortnight, which runs from 13th July. Details are being finalised and will be published here shortly.

Details of other events, including virtual events for those unable to attend in person, can be found at the CBA website.

 

New Year, New Hobby!

 

Do you enjoy history, are inquisitive and want to explore the past? Then come and join us! 

 

We carry out excavations, research, visit places of interest and hold monthly meetings. We've worked with Time Team, the National Trust, Sandwell Council, Dudley Council and landowners throughout the West Midlands, Staffordshire and Shropshire. 

 

Fancy trying your hand at excavation? Come along for a free taster session - no experience is required and all training and equipment will be provided.

 

If you're more interested in 'armchair archaeology', why not come along to one of our monthly meetings? Our next talk will be on Thursday 25th January when Dr George Nash, former lecturer at Bristol University, will give an illustrated talk on cave painting, entitled "Redecorating Prehistoric Shropshire and its Neighbours". The talk will commence at 7 pm in the Conference Suite at the City of Wolverhampton College’s Paget Road site. Entrance is free to members, £2.00 to non-members. Free parking is available on the students' car park at the rear of the college.

 

Smithy Project Ends

Our investigations into the former blacksmith's shop have now ended and while almost nothing of the original building survives, we did manage to discover a little new information.

At the building's north-west and south-west corners we found one or two courses of house-bricks laid in a square, forming foundation pillars (first photo, at right). Given that no other foundations were found, we suspect that building may have been a shed-like structure with its frontage open to the track. As can be seen in the second photo, these pillars were laid directly on the natural sand and gravel which in turn overlies sandstone.

While the material above foundation level was modern, it still had a story to tell. We could see how various materials had been deposited (and mostly removed) when the nearby main road was improved in the 1980s, how channels for cables and pipes had been cut, where road-sweepers had emptied their loads and even where removal of invasive plant species had been carried out!

Our full write-up can be downloaded via the Reports page here.

Looking For A Smithy

Our latest project, to find any trace of a village smithy that's at least 200 years old has just begun. Even though it was only demolished in the 1970s, little is known about the building or the people who worked there.

Through our initial desk-based research, we've been able to locate the building on maps going back as far as the start of the 1800s and by overlaying these on satellite images, to ascertain its position. Despite extensive changes to roads, buildings and boundaries over the last fifty years, we're reasonably confident that we have the right spot!

Any trace of the building is somewhere under the metre-deep bank in the middle of this photograph!

Soon after we begun putting in some exploratory trenches, a nearby resident kindly gave us a copy of a photo taken in the late 1960s. This shows two lost buildings, a cottage in the foreground and behind that a part of the old smithy itself. As can be seen in the above photograph, the area is much more wooded today.

A zoomed-in segment from a 1960s photograph shows the smithy building, partially obscured by a cottage, at left.

The indications from our initial digging is positive, with several clusters of house-bricks lying in the anticipated position of the building.

September Meeting

At our meeting on 28th September we enjoyed a series of 3D stereoscopic films courtesy of Phil Brown aka '3D Phil'. The films included breath-taking views of archaeological sites from around the world including numerous locations in Turkey, Egypt, Peru and Cambodia.

Phil's painstaking work in cleaning up images to create views you can almost touch revealed fascinating visual details about ancient buildings, the archaeologists who first explored them and the indigenous people they encountered.

An example of Phil's work for the National Trust can be found here:

https://archive.org/details/NationalTrust4K3DSXSFullMaster

and his Youtube channel here:

https://www.youtube.com/@3DPhilBrown

The Year To Date

As we're now entering the last quarter of 2023 it's worth a quick look back at what we've achieved so far this year.

The year began with a weekend project to investigate brickwork which had been noted below ground some years ago in the yard of Albrighton church. There were no recorded graves in the area and, being close to the site of a ancient building, there was the possibility of building foundations or a cellar. By the end of the dig we knew exactly what we'd found - a pair of brick-built tombs which are almost certainly occupied by a vicar and his family. Despite being the longest-serving vicar in the recorded history of the parish, the location of the grave had for some reason been lost, a wrong that we have finally righted.

The rediscovered tombs at Albrighton

A project begun in the summer of 2022 continued until July and finally yielded results. We'd been searching a vast area for a moated site which probably dated back to the medieval era. Despite geophys surveys and over 40 test pits, Georgian landscaping and World War II construction served to frustrate us until we finally discovered one arm of the moat and the rubble from whatever stood on the island within. Another successful project which we hope to continue in the future.

Worked sandstone blocks and sandstone fragments at the edge of the moat forming a revetment for the building platform

Our next dig was a return to Himley Hall near Dudley, where we've done extensive work in the past. Over a dozen diggers were involved on each day of what turned out to be the hottest weekend of the year, with temperatures around the 30 degree mark. The excellent attendance meant we were able to dig a larger than usual test pit of 2x1 metres all the way down to natural at around 1.25m deep. Finds included many sherds of locally made cooking pots dating from the 12th to 13th century and the resulting stratigraphy was quite spectacular (see earlier post for details). We'll be revisiting this fascinating site soon!

Rim sherd from 12/13th century cooking pot and its profile (below)

 

What will we discover in the final quarter of the year? Who knows, but as is always the case, we can guarantee it will include some surprises!

Willenhall History Society Fair

We had a busy day with lots of interest at the Willenhall History Society's fair held on Saturday 23rd September. Our next display is at the Perton History Fair on 7th October with the final exhibition on 21st October at Wolverhampton Archives.

From https://staffordshirehistorycentre.blog/

The team at Perton Library have planned an amazing history themed escape room and there will be exhibitors, re-enactors and local history groups with lots of free hands on activities to try.

From https://www.wolverhampton.gov.uk

The Wolverhampton Local History Fair is returning to Wolverhampton City Archives’ Molineux Hotel Building, Whitmore Hill, WV1 1SF on Saturday 21 October, 10am to 4pm.

Confirmed exhibitors include the likes of:

    West Midlands Police Museum
    The Western Front Association
    Wolverhampton Archaeology Group,

Birmingham Museums will be bringing along some items from their handling collection so children and adults can get a real feel for historical objects and artefacts.

City of Wolverhampton Council Director of Strategy, Charlotte Johns, said: “As a council, we are proud to support and see the return of the Wolverhampton Local History Fair and I very much encourage everyone to go along if they can.

“The Local History Fair is a great opportunity for residents to discover our city's fascinating past. The City of Wolverhampton Archives houses a wealth of material relating to the history of all parts of the city, including Bilston, Bushbury, Tettenhall and Wednesfield.

"Visitors will also be able to speak to experts who have carried out wide ranging research into the history of Wolverhampton and the Black Country and find out more about the service that the city archives offer.”

 

 

Himley Revisited

The south section of our test pit

The hottest weekend of the year was no barrier to our dedicated team when we revisited the grounds of Himley Hall near Dudley. 

With more than a dozen diggers on each day, we were able to put in a 2m x 1m test pit all the way down to natural at around 1.25m. Under the topsoil we found a demolition layer followed by a short sandy interval before another deeper and more compacted demolition layer. Below this we found around 15-20cm of a fine dark silt followed by more sand before finally coming down on to the natural sandstone.

Before the current hall was built, an older moated house stood in the vicinity. The layer of silt and the very flat sandstone at the bottom of the test pit could in some way be related to the moat or its watercourses.

As can be seen, the final sections presented some very clear and colourful stratigraphy - exactly what each layer represents and when it was deposited we'll endevaour to work out from the plentiful finds, which spanned the 12th to 19th centuries.

Given that Himley Park is open to the public and very well used, we were surprised that we didn't encounter any modern rubbish. This was no doubt due to our site being within the ha-ha, an area much less used than the general parkland. 

 

The spectacular view from our dig site