IntroductionWest Midlands Archaeology is the annual journal of the West Midlands Branch of the Council for British Archaeology. Its primary purpose is to publish summary reports of fieldwork carried out in the year previous to its publication, although it also includes short articles on regional issues.
CBA West Midlands covers the counties of Herefordshire, Shropshire, Staffordshire, Warwickshire, Worcestershire, and the West Midlands (which is composed of the metropolitan boroughs of Birmingham, Coventry, Dudley, Sandwell, Solihull, Walsall and Wolverhampton). The West Midlands County was formed following local government reorganisation in 1974 with land taken from the historic counties of Staffordshire, Warwickshire and Worcestershire. Entries in West Midlands Archaeology followed this new division from Volume 17.
The reorganisation of 1974 also saw the combination of the counties of Herefordshire and Worcestershire to form a new county of Hereford and Worcester. This new division lasted until 1998 when the two counties were separated again.
The Series began as a short News Sheet in 1958 issued annually by the Department of Extra Mural Studies, University of Birmingham. The idea behind it was bring together summaries of the results of fieldwork and excavation each year with reports from local groups and individuals - 'participation by all, for the information of all'. From Issue 3 onwards it came under the sponsorship of the Council for British Archaeology Group 8 which represented nearly all the archaeological societies in the West Midlands.
The series developed steadily from fewer than a dozen pages in the first year to over 100 in issue 22 - the last 'news sheet' . With a new format and name West Midlands Archaeology continued to be produced annually growing in size and content. Its main function is still as a journal of record - the greater part continuing to be a gazetteer of fieldwork, survey and excavation alongside, over the years, varying numbers of short articles for information and discussion.
Fieldwork entries up to Volume 22 tend to be ordered by organisation and/or period; entries in Volumes 23-27 are in alphabetical order by site name; from Volume 28 onwards entries are ordered by county.
