Scott pines

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Telepathine T
Telepathine Mar 28, 2003 18:57:57
Replying to broen

Dunno whereabouts in the Midlands your situated, but speaking for Birmingham and it's environs, there's probably less than 100 finds (Axes etc) pertaining to the Neolithic over the Whole West Midlands, well should i say, only 100 or so that have been recorded, there are probably a lot more unregistered (though most of these were only 'chance finds').
Anyhow, current thinking is that most of the West Midlands was avoided ( still is by most Southerners ; ) for reasons unknown (probably heavily wooded) and that these were just 'lost' items, as they don't turn up in any sort of context re: known sites.
There's only one 'suspected 'Bronze Age Barrow i know of, which is in Kingstanding, a couple of 'Burnt Mounds'. from the same era..one in Moseley Bog (they've even put a sign up to show where it is too, now its a nice SSSI site in a woods) the other is in a park near Bourneville/Selly Oak i think?
Theres a low lying Iron Age Hillfort near Holywood/Solihull Lodge, though it's not very impressive, and excavation didn't find much as the site is water-logged below a few feet, there's also a much more impressive one on Wychbury Hill near Stourbridge.
Morfe recons there was a couple of Long Barrows over near the wychbury/ Clent Hills, though I've never seen any info on it, so can't comment further....local knowledge i guess?.

There's a Roman Fort (well remains of) near the Maternity Hospital/Birmingham Uni...thought to be part of the first 'thrust' North after the invasion...later became a 'storage centre' and guard post over the road from Droitwich (which was a salt producing town). There's also a small Roman 'settlement' on the Fosse Way at Wall...though that may qualify as Staffordshire, I'm Not Sure?
And there's a 'Roman Road' which cuts through Sutton Park, other than those, there isn't much evidece for ancient habitation (though i guess much of it would have been destroyed by Birminghams outward expansion during the last dew century's).
Re: the Scotts Pine Theory...dunno how valid it would be...maybe he was just going on the premise that you often get trees growing on Bronze Age Barrows?? Also locally, they use a few Beech trees used as names for landmarks (Frankley Beeche's being one that springs to mind).

The whole of the Highlands of Scotland was thought to have been cleared during the Neolithic (unless current thinking poo poo's the idea...i heard that some time ago).

F FourWinds
FourWinds Mar 29, 2003 10:22:40
Replying to Telepathine

There was also a Roman fort/travelling camp near Enville Common (crop marks only these days).

I think the British Midlands must have taken the same fate as the Irish midlands. Too wooded for much of the time and coastal and river sites were favoured. This is probably because of ease of reach and good marginal resources.

It is hard to imagine, but as late as the 15th Century Sherwood Forrest was huge! If you find an old map of it you'll be amazed!

N nickbrand
nickbrand Mar 29, 2003 15:56:39
Replying to Telepathine

The Highlands of Scotland were only cleared in the late Middle Ages/early Industrial Revolution. Pockets survived until the World Wars, which did for much of the remaining trees....

On a side note, I have seen many cairns and tumuli in the Angus and Perthshire region which have pines growing on them. Rather more than would appear to just occur naturally - it's almost a feature of them.