Pottery piece in park is proof of Iron Age settlement

A SMALL piece of pottery unearthed at a Solihull beauty spot is further proof that an Iron Age settlement was based there 2,000 years ago, experts claim.

The 3cm-long ceramic sherd was found by historian Steve Carr, who has spent years piecing together Elmdon Park’s fascinating past.

Experts have dated the sherd to sometime between 400BC and 47AD, making it the oldest artefact uncovered at the park.

Mr Carr, who is the history co-ordinator at Elmdon Park Support Group, said the discovery further supports the theory there was an Iron Age settlement at the top of the hill and he has a good idea what these people would have been doing there.

He said: “We know there was a lot of Iron Age activity around Elmdon – 100 metres from where this sherd was found, we believe there was an Iron Age roundhouse.

“When Jaguar Land Rover built their warehouses, archaeologists found two stone-lined fire pits for firing pottery which was dated back to the Iron Age. And that’s only 700 metres away. A mile south, we know there are Iron Age enclosures there. It gives us a clearer idea of what was going on in the area back then.

“I’ve found a lot of pottery while I’ve been working at Elmdon Park but before I started work on this section five weeks ago, the oldest things we had were Tudor. Now we’re getting finds from the 14th to the 17th century.

“When I found this sherd in particular, it just looked like a piece of mud, but when I cleaned it up a little bit I could see it was a very old piece of pottery.

“Three different experts examined it and I was amazed when I found out how old it was. It just further supports our theory that there was an Iron Age settlement at the top of the hill.

“They would have been farmers. Most people in the Iron Age were farmers – even the warriors would have been farming when they weren’t fighting, it’s how people survived.”

There has never been a proper dig at Elmdon Park and Mr Carr believes there could be more fascinating treasures hidden below the surface.

The pottery found in Elmdon Park, was dated between 400BC and 47AD