Staffordshire Archaeol Hist Soc Trans 37

Report on excavations undertaken in advance of road construction to the south-east of both the modern village of Wall and the main focus of the Roman military and civilian complex. The purpose of the investigations was to provide information concerning the extent, layout, chronology, and sequence of Roman civilian settlement adjoining Watling Street and Ryknild Street, and to investigate the potential of the area for evidence of early military activity. Excavations in area 1 produced evidence of a sequence of timber structures from the first phase of occupation as a military site, probably during the Flavian-Trajanic period although some features may be Neronian in origin. These buildings may have been barrack-blocks, although alternative interpretations are that they were stores or stables. Evidence for this phase from pottery, and from other investigations elsewhere in the complex is discussed. The second phase, characterised by a charcoal-rich levelling deposit, provided evidence in area 4 of glass-working in the form of moiles, pincered tail, melted blobs and vessel fragments. This phase was followed by a layout of pebbled surfaces, and then by a stone-footed building in area 1, which was later destroyed by fire and in the destruction deposit of which were found fragments of a window-pane and iron window grille. Several timber-framed buildings were also associated with this phase. The final phase of Roman activity is represented by the edge of a ditch which may have belonged to the later Roman burgus enclosure. Specialist reports include

Examination of two plans of Burton parish church from the Bodleian Library allows a reconstruction of the ground plan of the transepts and western arm of the original abbey church, and provides an opportunity to re-examine other evidence for the form of its eastern arm.

Discussion of the probable Celtic origins and significance of the place-name.