The site is located south of the A44 and west of Bath Road and the Worcester and Birmingham Canal.  It had been used as a car park since the demolition of a row of terrace buildings in the 1970s.

Opposite the former car park is the Albion Flour Mill on the corner of Mill Street and Portland Street.

The excavation took place in the early summer of 2005 and followed the footprint of the L shaped building that was to be developed at the site.  The excavation area measured approximately 473 square metres and was fully excavated down to natural deposits. 

The earliest clearly datable features uncovered during the excavation were refuse pits from the Saxo-Norman period.  A probable boundary or drainage ditch could also date to this period.  A second ditch on a different alignment was dated to the 12^th century.

Slag and hammerscale found within many of the features and a possible metalworking hearth revealed within trench 2 of the 13 – 15 Mill Street evaluation shows that there may also have been small scale industry or craft working.

A scatter of redeposited Prehistoric and Roman material, including a bow brooch, was also found.

A distinct break between the later 12^th century and the early 19^th century was clear from the pottery assemblage.  Unfortunately the 19^th century housing present on the site had cellars fronting onto Willow Street which had destroyed any evidence of earlier deposits. 

The car park from the roof of Albion Flour Mill

Phil the digger driver

The brick cellar

Part of the site following the initial cleaning

Pit 515 before excavation

Pit 515 half-sectioned; to the east (see section E – F Figure 7)

The redeposited Roman brooch

Section across ditches 506 and 478 (see section I – J)

South-facing section of ditch 478 (see section M – N Figure 7)

All modern surfaces were machine excavated across the site.  Below the modern tarmac and gravel car park  the remains of the row of 19^th century terraced housing (561) was uncovered which would originally have fronted onto Willow Street. 

Excavation revealed the presence of cellars fronting onto Willow Street, one of which was excavated as a sample to ascertain the nature of the deposits beneath it.

The cellar was filled with very loose brick rubble and general refuse that dated to the 1970s covered the original, heavily coal-stained, brick set floor.  When the floor was removed a thin layer of levelling material overlay the compact natural gravels.   The cellars had removed any archaeological features in this area and it was decided that emptying further cellars would be of little archaeological interest. 

The terraced housing comprised two ground floor rooms to the rear of the cellars where the stratigraphy was very different.  The lack of cellarage in the second room meant that soils of very different dates survived. 

All archaeological features included pits and ditches cut into the natural gravel and were covered by a well mixed soil horizon that contained pottery dating from the late 12^th – 16^th century.

The earliest clearly datable features was a linear drainage gully.  It was oval in plan with almost vertical sides and a flat base. The backfill of the pit contained  pottery from the 10^th to early 11^th century.  A circular pit contained pottery of the same date. 

Pit 515 was half-sectioned in the southern section of the excavation area.  The trench was extended to show the full extent of this pit which measured 2.70 metres north-south, 1.50 metres east-west and roughly 1.20 metres deep.  The angle of the sides varied between 60 and 80° and the base was flat.

The primary fill, 553, dated to the 11^th – 12^th century, and consisted of firm mid green/grey clay (possible lining). This fill was approximately 0.20 – 0.30 metres thick. The middle fill of this pit was 552, a very loose light grey/brown sandy silt.  This fill was roughly 0.30 metres thick and contained hammerscale.  The final fill (516) of this pit was approximately 0.50 metres thick and was a fairly loose mid brown silty sandy clay.  This fill contained a redeposited Roman bow brooch. 

Two inter-cutting ditches dated to the 11^th – 14^th century were revealed in the centre of the excavation. 

Ditch 506 measured 8 metres long aligned roughly north-south, 1.50 metres wide and approximately 0.50 metres deep.  The sides were approximately 75º with a concave base and a rounded terminus at its northern end. This ditch had gone out of use in the 11th century and its fill was cut by a later ditch, 478.

Ditch 478 crossed the excavation area roughly north-west/south-east, was 12.30 metres long and continued into both the western and eastern sections. It was 1.40 metres wide and 0.60 metres deep and the pottery suggested that it had been filled in sometime between the 12th and 14th centuries.

Monitoring also took place at the Albion Flour Mill

click here for trench plans and sections