West Midlands Regional Research Framework for Archaeology, Seminar 1: Ray
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The Neolithic in the West Midlands: an overview
Keith Ray
Herefordshire County Archaeologist
kray@herefordshire.gov.uk
Introduction
The West Midlands is a geographically diverse region that encompasses at its core the central
part of the valley of the river Severn, and its major tributary the Warwickshire Avon to the
east. A key feature of the region is the mixture, therefore, of river-valleys (that include also
those of the middle Wye, Upper Trent, Teme, Lugg and two River Arrows, and surrounding
uplands (including the Clee Hills, the Malverns, and at the margins the south-western Peak
District, northern Cotswolds, and the south Shropshire/north Herefordshire Hills.
It would not be surprising, therefore, to find that the Neolithic of the region is equally
diverse. In terms of the monument classifications of a bygone era of archaeological study, we
can note that the region is on the margins of well-known distributions of particular kinds of
site. An example is that of the Cotswold-Severn chambered tombs, a scattering of which are
found in south-west Herefordshire and south Warwickshire. Conversely, there are no
monument ‘types’ that are specifically characteristic of the region itself.
In the context of contemporary Neolithic studies, however, the West Midlands is an area that
is likely to provide a number of surprises and correctives with reference to traditional
interpretive models. The Neolithic here is represented by the suite of constructions known
within the repertoire of lowland British Neolithic communities, while featuring also many
better known from the uplands. Equally, subtleties are being revealed concerning contrasts in
the way that the river valleys were occupied, including trends in site location and succession,
for instance with the Beaker phase extending into the Early Bronze Age.
Data collection: recent progress
A regional characteristic that has inhibited research into the Neolithic of the West Midlands
(and shared with the archaeology of other periods) is the frequent relative invisibility of the
material remains. For example, the low site density recorded along 27 miles of the M6 toll
motorway construction route, north-east of Birmingham, suggested that in comparison with
Wessex, the South-East or East Anglia, an ‘empty landscape’ should be envisaged in at least
parts of the West Midlands (British Archaeology 65, June 2002, 5). In the experience of many
archaeologists based in the region, this should instead be seen as due to soils that are
sufficiently intractable to mask evidence of activity alsong linear developments. This is a
difficulty mirrored in apparent blanks produced also from aerial and geophysical survey.
In Herefordshire, a recent gas pipeline in the south of the county was pronounced devoid of
features, but on closer inspection of part of its course a high density of Romano-British and
earlier activity was revealed. Meanwhile, the route of a new road south of Hereford,
evaluated by a locally-based contract unit, was found to bisect significant prehistoric
landscapes, the evidence for which, located within and beneath colluvial deposits, could
easily have been missed.
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There is therefore a need to adjust data collection and field archaeological methods to address
the intransigence of regional soil conditions. Equally, there is a need for sustained
programmes of work in key locations affected by minerals extraction and development.
Moreover, another regional characteristic of archaeological study – lack of research
endeavour – also needs to be addressed. Currently, only the fieldwalking programmes of
some local and mostly voluntary groups and individuals, and some work in the Staffordshire
Peak District, could be classed as research-inspired. There are no research projects underway
or recently conducted in the region that have - even as one central theme among others –
attempted to understand the Neolithic of a particular area. Research into lithics and pottery
has been conducted piecemeal, and so far without the specification even of the most general
goals such as, for instance, an understanding of the Peterborough Ware tradition regionally
(although, see Woodward 1995).
Diversities of activity: regional trends
Earlier Neolithic activity is represented by worked flint assemblages that include a Mesolithic
element (see paper by Barfield, this website). Some localities have produced high densities of
such material, and these may represent population centres of especially formed places. These
include Clun in Shropshire and the Golden Valley in Herefordshire. Causewayed enclosures
and cursus monuments are now thought most likely to represent gathering places of diverse
kinds. The presence of the former on the Staffordshire Trent, and the latter both there, on the
Avon, and on the western margins of the region in the Walton Basin (on a tributary of the
Lugg), points to the likely occurrence of these monuments across the region.
A present curiosity is the near-absence of long mounds either as surviving earthworks or as
(parallel-ditched, for instance) cropmark sites. While the former may be explicable by the
intensity of medieval farming across much of the area concerned, the latter is more puzzling.
Sites such as that revealed in Field 3 at Wasperton in Warwickshire, with a truncated pair of
ditches aligned east-west, may represent a local equivalent. Plain bowl pottery has been
found in pit clusters at Wellington, Herefordshire (see paper by Jackson, this website) and in
Warwick and near Beckford in south Worcestershire. Ebbsfleet Ware sherds were retrieved
from a single-ditched enclosure at Wasperton on the Avon, with a likely diameter of around
150m. Plain bowl pottery with large angular rock inclusions was recently found in a truncated
pit with finer paste ceramics and carbonised grain (yielding an early fourth millennium BC
date) immediately south of the Wye in Hereford.
Hill-top enclosures are known from several parts of the region. One excavated (but so far still
unpublished) example is the apparent promontory enclosure at Dorstone Hill, Herefordshire.
Others are known from finds of stone axes, as at Westington Camp and Dinedor Hill in
Herefordshire. Still others are suspected from finds of pottery, as at The Roveries near
Bishop's Castle in Shropshire, and yet others from massive stone-built ramparts (on analogy
with south-western Britain) at sites such as Titterstone Clee in Shropshire.
For the later Neolithic, there is ample evidence for pits containing Grooved Ware, as at
Asperton Mill, Kemerton, Worcestershire, and again at Wasperton on the Warwickshire
Avon. A variety of ‘hengiform’ monuments are recorded from aerial photography in all areas
of the region, but none have been confirmed as later Neolithic sites by excavation. One
earthwork site that approximates the allegedly ‘classic’ form is Eardisley Camp in the Wye
Valley in west Herefordshire, currently the subject of survey by Herefordshire Archaeology.
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Timber monuments are also known within the region, or at least close to it. The major
palisaded enclosures recently revealed in the Walton Basin, mostly in Radnorshire but
extending into north-west Herefordshire, are reflected in (as yet undated) palisaded
enclosures in the neighbouring Herefordshire Arrow valley. Another major timber site with
clear parallels elsewhere is the major timber structure comprising at least four rings of
concentric posts (site 1397) revealed from aerial photographs but as yet unexamined at
Catholme, Staffordshire.
Nor can the existence of other major late Neolithic and early Bronze Age 'ceremonial
complexes' in the region be discounted. An example from the Wye valley is the likely former
stone circle at Huntsham near Symond's Yat, represented today only by the Queen Stone; a
standing sandstone monolith with weathering grooves like those on The Devil's Arrows near
Ripon in Yorkshire. The stone now stands less than 2m above ground, but extends a further
1m below it, as was shown in Alfred Watkins' excavations in the early twentieth century. His
trench produced worked flint and prehistoric pottery. On Huntsham Hill above the site to the
east, besides a significant assemblage of worked flint, a sizeable chunk of a side-facetted
Langdale-type axe was found in the 1970s.
Lowland Landscapes
The existence of Early Bronze Age barrow cemeteries in various parts of the region, but
mostly recorded from ring-ditched complexes in river valleys, often points to centres of
Neolithic activity. Ring-ditches and pit-clusters are often found together, as at Meole Brace
near Shrewsbury. The barrow-cemeteries often contain both earthwork barrows and examples
that have been ploughed out. An excavated example is the extensive cemetery located at the
confluence of the Onny with the Teme at Bromfield, north of Ludlow, in Shropshire. Here, a
series of ring-ditches were found to have Neolithic origins, and to range over a kilometre and
more of this valley floor landscape.
Other such cemeteries containing upstanding and levelled barrows are known from the west
of the region. Examples include the confluence of the Teme and Clun near Leintwardine, the
Lugg Valley near Presteigne and west of Leominster, and the Herefordshire Arrow (Milton
Cross group) east of Kington. Other groups are known or suspected throughout the river
valleys of the region, often at or near confluences.
Extensive excavations of river valley landscapes have taken place at Bromfield in Shropshire,
Wellington in Herefordshire, Kemerton and Beckford in Worcestershire, Barford and
Wasperton in Warwickshire, and in Staffordshire. Only at Wasperton has a diversity of
Neolithic features been uncovered (although recent investigations Catholme in Staffordshire
are beginning to reveal a complex of features of the period). At Wasperton, the parallelditched feature and single-ditched enclosure already mentioned were located away from the
river Avon to the east of the investigated area. However, Neolithic origins were traced to a
series of ring-ditches closer to the river. The pit-clusters in the same area were in two cases
associated with features that, had they not been very truncated, might have indicated the
presence of the ever-elusive (in this case possibly circular) Neolithic houses. Such structures
were also claimed at Barford. Equally intangible is a near-perfect (but undated) pit-circle of
6.5m diameter at Wasperton, paralleled in Herefordshire by a recently examined site at
Winforton, which was also devoid of finds. One target for future work will be to try to
examine such sites more often within their wider landscape context.
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Conclusion: the identity of the West Midlands Neolithic
So far, there are only a series of clues to the diversity of the Neolithic in the West Midlands,
and very few unifying factors. One aspect that would repay re-examination is the nature of
the stone and flint axe distributions within the area, and the paper on which this summary is
based discusses this aspect in more detail.
To conclude, there are some simple points that can be included in any preliminary attempt to
construct an agenda for future research. Some of these elements are very basic indeed.
 We are already making good use of mineral extraction sites to look at whole landscapes.
However, some of these sites, such as Wasperton, are very truncated, while others, such
as Wellington, are in formerly inundated areas where activity may have been only very
sporadic.
 More cropmark sites need at least sample investigation where there are reasonable
grounds to suspect that the monuments concerned may be early.
 We need to devise survey and sampling strategies that will pick up timber structures of
the kind found in eastern Scotland at Balbridie, Deeside and recently at Claish Farm near
Callander, or, on a smaller scale at Yarnton in Oxfordshire, and near Maidstone in Kent.
 As elsewhere in the country, it would also be useful to commence a programme of stoneaxe study looking at the form and distribution of axes as well as potential source-sites
and attempting sourcing of found axes.
 Finally, we need to foster a more structured research culture, which of course this
programme of seminars is at least partly designed to do. This includes better sharing of
data as well as more (and more detailed) interim publication of field programmes and
projects. We could of course start with a good correspondence arising from the current
consultation exercise !