Evaluation of Walsall Waterfront, Wolverhampton Street, Walsall

In 2007 Birmingham Archaeology undertook an archaeological evaluation of Walsall Waterfront Development in advance of a proposed retail development. The study area is situated immediately west of Walsall town centre by the terminus of the Walsall Canal. The report outlines the results of an evaluation, carried out between November and December 2007. Six 20m x 1.8m trenches were excavated at strategic positions across the site. The chief features of archaeological interest were two large pits in trench 2/4. They were cut into the natural clay and ceramics within the fill of one of them suggest that they were backfilled in the 17th-18th centuries. Their likely purpose was for extraction of raw materials, either clay or the underlying shale/coal. Residual medieval pottery suggests activity of this date nearby. The palaeo-environmental evidence from within the pit fills suggests that in the 17th-18th centuries the area was largely open grassland, with little evidence of woodland; while the presence of cereal grains in relative abundance indicates that cereals were being grown in close proximity to the site or cereal processing was being carried out nearby