Data from a Borehole Survey at Park Hall, Castle Bromwich, Smiths Wood, Solihull Borough Council, West Midlands, 2017-2018 (HS2 Phase One)
High Speed Two Ltd., MOLA Headland Infrastructure, Headland Archaeology Ltd, 2025. https://doi.org/10.5284/1127211. How to cite using this DOI
Data copyright © High Speed Two Ltd. unless otherwise stated
This work is licensed under a The Open Government Licence (OGL).
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Resource identifiers
- ADS Collection: 5636
- DOI:https://doi.org/10.5284/1127211
- How to cite using this DOI
Introduction
This collection comprises of site photographs and spreadsheets from geoarchaeological investigations carried out by MOLA-Headland Infrastructure (MHI) at Park Hall, Castle Bromwich, Solihull, Metropolitan County of the West Midlands, during November 2017.
Project Summary
The site is a reclaimed floodplain of the River Tame and has been identified within the enabling works programme for proposed ecological mitigation works and construction of the River Tame railway viaduct and an embankment.
Objectives for the project included:
- KC5: Identifying settlement location and developing models for settlement patterns for the Mesolithic, Neolithic and Early Bronze Age;
- KC6: Understanding the evidence for change in the environment and management of the landscape for the Mesolithic and early Neolithic periods;
- KC10: Provide further understanding of the transition between a mobile pattern of settlement in the Early Bronze Age to the development of fixed settlement and enclosure, in the Middle and Late Bronze Age;
- KC14: Identify sequences of environmental change for the Late Upper Palaeolithic-Early Mesolithic transition through investigation of sites in the Colne Valley and other locations along the route.
Fifteen boreholes were successfully undertaken across the site area, drilling down through riverine deposits to the underlying gravels and sands and/or the bedrock. Substantial alluvial deposits (clay silts with only occasional gravel) were encountered in only two boreholes (Boreholes 9 & 10) with no peat or other organic layers logged. No archaeological artefacts were encountered in any of the boreholes.
Re-Use Value Statement
The borehole cores contain little material that will substantially contribute to the HERDS objectives and, importantly, with the absence of peat or plant macrofossils no chrono stratigraphy can be reliably established.
