Data copyright © Worcestershire County Council, Warwickshire County Council unless otherwise stated
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Worcestershire Archive and Archaeology Service
The Hive
Sawmill Walk
The Butts
Worcester
WR1 3PD
Tel: 01905 822866
Between 1960 and 1977 Kay Hartley conducted excavations near the Warwickshire villages of Mancetter and Hartshill. In 1983 and 1984, further rescue excavations were undertaken by Warwickshire Museum at Mancetter, Cherry Tree Farm. These various excavations investigated a major Roman industrial complex, comprising more than 50 pottery kilns and associated features, including a glass furnace. Following the excavations, a considerable amount of time and effort was put into post-excavation analysis of the mortaria, other pottery and finds. Despite this, the excavations and their associated finds have remained unpublished. This represents a major lacuna in Romano-British studies. The purpose of this digitisation project has been to secure and make accessible key elements of this archive resource, facilitating and encouraging its study and use, and potentially its further development.
The archive that has been digitised is curated by Warwickshire Museum. The digitisation project did not include any Mancetter-Hartshill archive still held by Kay Hartley, or any detailed information regarding mortarium stamps. The latter will form part of a separate project, creating a database of potters’ stamps. The archive relating to Kay Hartley’s excavations at Hartshill and Mancetter Broad Close is accessioned as a single entity (Warwickshire Museums Accession Number 1/2020). It is presently uncertain whether the Mancetter Cherry Tree Farm archive had been accessioned.
An initial audit of the archive was completed in 2019 (Evans and Hurst 2019), and digitisation of the archive was then carried out in 2019-2020. The digital resource accessed from this website includes drawings, photographs, reports and samples of associated records relating to the following:
This project was funded by Historic England, with an additional small grant from The Study Group for Roman Pottery. Work on the archive was carried out by Jane Evans, with Nina O’Hare and Hazel Whitefoot, and additional comment by Laura Griffin (Worcestershire Archaeology), and with specialist digitisation by WAAS Digital (John France). The project was managed by Derek Hurst (Worcestershire Archaeology). Worcestershire Archaeology would like to thank the following for their advice and support: Jenni Butterworth (Historic England); Katie Green, Collections Development Manager, ADS; Duncan Brown, Head of Archaeological Archives, Historic England; Sara Wear, Curator of Human History for Warwickshire Museum; Kay Hartley, Yvonne Boutwood and Paul Booth. Many people contributed to the creation of the archive. Some are named in the relevant sections, but it is not possible to name them all. The Cherry Tree Farm excavations were led by Martin Jones. Particular thanks must go to Kay Hartley, whose contribution to mortarium studies has been immense.
image: HE7725_H_photo_bw_working_02 'Excavation at Hartshill' copyright of Warwickshire County Council