Data from a Archaeological Monitoring at Mass House Car Park, Birmingham, West Midlands, 2020 (HS2 Phase One)
High Speed Two Ltd., MOLA Headland Infrastructure, Headland Archaeology Ltd, 2025. https://doi.org/10.5284/1129152. 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).
Primary contact
High Speed Two Ltd.
2 Snowhill
Queensway
Birmingham
B4 6GA
United Kingdom
Tel: 08081 434 434
Resource identifiers
- ADS Collection: 5653
- DOI:https://doi.org/10.5284/1129152
- How to cite using this DOI
Introduction
Project Summary
This collection comprises images, reports, CAD files, spreadsheets, and site record data from archaeological mitigation at the Mass House Car Park site in Birmingham. The work, conducted by Headland Archaeology (UK) Ltd, took place between April and May 2020 and will contribute to the HS2 terminus at Curzon Street, Birmingham.
The excavation saw archaeological survival limited to isolated pockets in the eastern and western extents of the excavated area. Medieval pottery sherds recovered from mixed deposits alluded to activity on or near the mitigation area during the medieval period, but such finds were very limited. The area was instead dominated by the remains of 19th and 20th Century foundations and basements, along with the remains of a cobbled path and a scatter of pits which likely ranged in date from the 17th to 20th Centuries. Two stone grinding wheels were discovered, built into the floor of one of the 19th century basements; thought to have originated from a nearby foundry. The structural remains were found to have heavily impacted most of the excavation area, to depths exceeding 3.00m below the extant ground surface.
Re-Use Value Statement
Although several small pits, potentially dating to the 18th century, were recorded at the eastern western extents of the area (Areas 1 and 3), these had all been truncated by more recent large structural foundations. The archaeological remains across mitigation site were dominated by the foundations of demolished buildings and extant basements, dating from between the late 18th to 20th Centuries; including structural remains associated with former Phoenix Foundry complex. Any earlier archaeological remains that might have survived in the central part of the site (most of Area 2 and the western end of Area 3), had been very heavily impacted by 19th and 20th century development.
The site did not reveal any firm evidence of medieval settlement. Some residual pottery sherds recovered from highly mixed fills of truncated pits suggest medieval activity in the vicinity of the site but nothing more. All of the pottery is likely to be the product of secondary deposition or is residual. To some extent the lack of evidence could be attributed to the high density of buildings that occupied the site throughout the 19th and 20th centuries. Building foundations, deep basements and associated services covered a high proportion of the site, and in areas where these were demolished, the ground had been reduced and made back up with dumped levelling layers of brick rubble.
The results of this excavation suggest low potential to contribute to the Specific HERDS Objectives that are set out in the site report. Cartographic evidence suggests the buildings identified on the site are broadly in line with structures mapped on the 1st edition and later Ordnance Survey plans of the area. As these buildings have heavily truncated most of the site to a significant depth, there seems limited potential to contribute further to the broader regional or national Specific Objectives. The remains observed and recorded do not indicate that a substantial contribution to the resource assessment could be made.
The provisional findings indicate the following: 1) The type of archaeology is not rare in a local, regional or route wide context, 2) The frequency of archaeological features and deposits is low and 3) There are limited opportunities for community-based work.
