Böcker av Simon Buteux

Birmingham Archaeology Monograph Series 1This report provides the results of archaeological investigations undertaken by Birmingham University Field Archaeology Unit (BUFAU, now Birmingham Archaeology) in advance of a major residential and employment development at Grange Park, Courteenhall, Northamptonshire (NGR SP 760550). The investigations, of an extensive area of Iron Age, Roman and Saxon landscape containing several settlement foci, were undertaken between January and September 1999. The 1999 investigations followed a programme of archaeological evaluation of the 193 hectare site in 1997 and 1998, comprising a desk-based assessment, aerial photographic assessment, extensive fieldwalking, geophysical survey and trial trenching. The site lies at the interface between the higher quality agricultural land and permeable geologies of Upper Nene Valley at Northampton and the boulder clay uplands of the Salcey and Whittlewood Forest areas. From the early prehistoric period onwards the sands and gravels had been favoured for settlement, a situation seen in microcosm at Grange Park, with the claylands probably remaining heavily wooded until they were largely cleared in the Iron Age and Roman periods. The Iron Age settlements at Grange Park may be seen as outliers of the concentration of settlements in the Upper Nene Valley around Hunsbury hillfort. In the Early and Middle Saxon periods the claylands appear to have been largely abandoned for agriculture, with resultant regeneration of woodland, before in the Late Saxon and medieval periods intensive arable exploitation expanded over most of the claylands from nucleated villages generally located on the permeable geologies. Again the site at Grange Park reflects this broader pattern in microcosm, with the whole of the 193 hectare site being brought into ridge-and-furrow cultivation during the medieval period, as evidenced by documentary and cartographic sources, aerial photographs and surviving earthworks.With contributions by Lynne Bevan, Megan Brickley, Marina Ciaraldi, Jane Cowgill, Lucie Dingwall, Chris Gaffney, Rowena Gale, James Greig, Annette Hancocks, Kay Hartley, Rob Ixer, Erica Macey Bracken, Emily Murray, Stephanie Rátkai, Val Rigby, David Smith, Roger Tomlin, Roger White and Steven WillisIllustrations by Mark Breedon, Nigel Dodds, John Halsted, and Bryony Ryder

Detailed reports of the excavations carried out by Peter Gelling between 1963 and 1981. Five locations have been investigated, revealing a sequence of settlement from the Late Bronze Age to the post-medieval period. Published in the association with Historic Scotland.With contributions by Enid Allison, Jane Bellam, Sally Brooks, Judson Chesterman, Rachel Edwards, Peter Gelling, Raymond Lamb, Susan Limbrey, Jessica Lloyd-Jones, Gerry McDonnell, Rebecca Nicholson, Barbara Noddle and Deborah Porter.Illustrations by Jane Bellam, Sally Brooks, Mark Breedon, Henry Buglass, Nigel Dodds and Jessica Lloyd-Jones.The University of Birmingham 1997.

There have been many books about Birmingham's history but this one is different. It is based on the archaeological evidence from the first major excavations to be carried out in Birmingham city centre. The book is written in a lively, accessible style and contains over 100 illustrations, most in colour. It provides new evidence of Birmingham's origins and its growth as a market town and industrial centre in the medieval period. The book also offers a new perspective on the transformation of Birmingham into 'the first manufacturing town in the world' in the 18th and 19th centuries. A large part of the book is devoted to the excavation of St. Martin's Churchyard, which uncovered 857 burials - in simple graves and elaborate tombs - of the people who made the Industrial Revolution. The burials are explored in fascinating detail, together with analysis of the health of the population based on scientific study of the skeletons. New research reveals intimate details of the lives of the men and women of the town of a thousand trades. If you are interested in the history of Birmingham, this book is essential reading.