Archaeologists have unearthed evidence of a prehistoric settlement, including woodlands and part of a butter churn, at the major railway development at Norton Bridge.
Network Rail is delivering new signalling equipment, line speed improvements and building a new flyover at Norton Bridge which will remove the last major bottleneck on the West Coast main line. Hundreds of thousands of tonnes of earth have been moved at the site to date, but checks are undertaken by site senior archaeologist Dr Emma Tetlow during ground works.
Dr Tetlow’s specialism is the prehistory of British wetlands and she says she was excited to discover the lid to the butter churn, as well as a cleft oak plank which is being investigated further.
The finds – along with further evidence of worked wooden stakes and wood chips – were made in a section of waterlogged peat close to Meece Road. A number of Victorian stoneware bottles bearing the names of breweries from Bristol to Manchester have also been unearthed and Emma believes they may have been left behind by builders working on a house nearby.
“We don’t have firm dates yet, but we’ve taken samples for radiocarbon dating and pollen analysis,” said Dr Tetlow. “Preliminary analysis of the wood indicates working with a metal tool and so we’re looking at a period just after the beginning of the Bronze Age around 2,500BC. The navvies built this line in the 1830s and we may have come very close to a settlement, but so far we haven’t discovered one. However, I’m delighted to uncover a piece of prehistory in Staffordshire and looking forward to discussing it with the local community.”
Local residents will have the chance to view the objects and discuss them with Dr Tetlow and other colleagues working on the site at an information day in the summer. Staffordshire Alliance manager Matt Clark said: “This is a huge programme of work and vitally important in allowing us to deliver more capacity and wider improvements to an increasingly busy railway. We were aware of the history of the railway, but we’ve worked closely with Emma throughout the programme and it’s been fascinating to see what has been unearthed.”
Work is well underway on the £250 million Stafford Area Improvements Programme to provide faster, more reliable services and increase capacity on the busy West Coast main line. The work is being delivered by the Staffordshire Alliance – a partnership of Atkins, Laing O’Rourke, Network Rail and VolkerRail.
Local residents wanting further information about the work should contact Network Rail’s national helpline on 03457 114 141; email: CRNW@networkrail.co.uk; or visit www.networkrail.co.uk/StaffordImprovements
