Today AiM were excavating at Northycote Farm, Wolverhampton, after several weeks of being unable to dig due to the bad weather. It was great to be back on site, and we were joined by representatives from the University of Birmingham ArchSoc (Archaeology Society).
Site Information
We were excavating and recording a cottage, of which very little is known about its construction, purpose, or reason for demolition. From OS maps, it appears that the cottage was demolished between 1938 and 1954.
It is likely that this cottage was built at a similar time to Moseley Court, and was potentially used by its staff. Moseley Court started construction in 1815, and was completed in 1821. The remnants of Moseley Court (comprising what remains of the walls and cellar of the Regency style building) is located approximately 200m northeast of the cottage, and is also located within the Northycote Farm land. The building was demolished in the 1960s.
Another building of local historical importance, Moseley Old Hall, is located approximately 2km northeast of the cottage and was built in the 16th/17th century, c.1600. Steeped in centuries of local history, you can still visit this building today, following its restoration by the National Trust in the 1960s.
Aims of the Excavation
- To attempt to recover evidence for a potential date of the construction and use of the cottage
- To plan the layout of the cottage
- To attempt to identify why the cottage was built in this location
The Excavation
Today we were continuing our recording of the cottage. To do this, we continued to create a site plan (which had been started in our previous excavations at the site, and records the layout of the site), as well as adding to the record of context sheets for the site. Before this work could be completed, the site was cleaned thoroughly, to make the recording both easier and more accurate.
For more photographs of our excavation, please see our Facebook page!
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