Stirchley Slag Works (I)

Just as we are finishing off some big commercial projects, and in the week before we head off to West Bromwich, we are going to be running a small conservation and recording project with volunteers in Telford Town Park.

This is a continuation of our previous work on the Stirchley ironworking complex established by the Botfield family in the 1820s. However for the first time we are going to explore the post-industrial landscape in a bit more detail. The map above shows the area in the 1920s, with the former furnaces site marked 'Wrekin Chemical Works'. To the south are numerous 'Slag Works'.

From the 1890s several companies acquired the rights to mine and crush the slag. This was used as roadstone and to make concrete. By the 1920s there were two companies here: Tarslag, who later became famous for their concrete lamp-posts; and the Bilston Slag Company, which later became absorbed into Tarmac, the well known civil engineering company.

The main focus of our work next week will be the recording of part of a slag crushing plant. The photograph below (kindly supplied by Malcolm Peel of the Dawley History Group) shows one of the Stirchley plants in use in the 1930s (we aren't sure which one).

As far as I know this is the first time that an archaeological investigation has ever taken place on a slag crushing plant! As well as clearing and recording the concrete engine house and crushing plant bases, we will be doing some survey work on the surrounding landscape. As ever, the work is generously supported by Telford and Wrekin Council, and would not be possible without our enthusiastic volunteers from the Wrekin Historical Group, the Dawley History Group, the Friends of Telford Town Park and elsewhere. More news will be added here soon; and I shall be speaking to the Wrekin Historical Group about the project at their regular St. George's meeting tomorrow evening.

West Bromwich Manor House

Next month we are going to start work on a very exciting community archaeology project at the Manor House in West Bromwich.

The moated complex of timber-framed buildings consists of a thirteenth century hall with fifteenth century and later additions, including a late sixteenth or early seventeenth century gatehouse, and a separate seventeenth century block.

By the early eighteenth century much of the manorial estate had passed out of the control of the owners of the hall, and in 1820 the main buildings were converted to tenements. Further additions were made to the complex during the nineteenth century.

In the early 1950s the site was 'restored' along the conservation principles of the time. This meant that most of the eighteenth and nineteenth century additions were demolished, and the medieval fabric was rebuilt. The moat was also re-excavated along what is probably not its original alignment.

More detailed history of the Manor House can be found here.

After a long period of use as a pub and restaurant, Sandwell Metropolitan Borough Council took on the management of the site in 2010.

We have been asked to deliver a community archaeology project at the Manor House. Although some previous archaeological work has been done on the site, much of its story remains untold. We are hoping that this work will answer some significant research questions about the site. In particular we are going to explore:
- the original location and alignment of the moat
- the relationships between the various elements of the complex
- the remains of the eighteenth and nineteenth century buildings and other features

The project will provide opportunities for adult volunteers, school groups and the general public to get involved in doing archaeology in West Bromwich. As well as geophysical survey, landscape survey and - of course - excavation, everyone will get the chance to do some historic building recording and finds analysis.

This is a really exciting opportunity for us, and I am very much looking forward to developing some of the ideas about empowerment and advocacy which we have begun to apply to our community archaeology projects in Telford.

As well as posts on this blog, you can also follow progress on our CBA Community Forum pages.