HALES OWENROOTS
Wychbury Field-walking Group
Iron Age, Romano-British and Medieval Artefacts from Halesowen (Continued)
The site of a Romano-British settlement is almost always discovered by the presence of quantities of broken pottery sherds lying on ploughed fields. These sherds can help date and give an indication of the status of the site by the quality of the pieces and the origins of particular wares found. Several such
sites, usually simple farmstead settlements, have been discovered and
recorded around Halesowen by field-walkers over many years.
Photograph N is of a sherd of a local pottery called Severn Valley Ware; this particular fragment is part of a large wide rimmed storage jar and probably dates to between the 2nd and 3rd century. Several kilns producing this domestic coarse ware have been excavated around Malvern and Worcester and were in use across most of the Roman period.
Some of our local Roman-British sites reveal evidence of extensive trade routes across the country and the near continent by the diversity of pottery fragments found on them. A rim section of a mortarium or mixing bowl is shown in Photograph O which was manufactured between 250AD and 350AD around the Hartshill and Mancetter area in the East Midlands and is unusual in that the painted decoration along the rim is still present.
