Pottal Pool Sand And Gravel Quarry Extension Archaeological Assessment Report

An archaeological assessment was carried out for an Environmental Impact Assessment and planning application for an extension to the Pottal Pool sand and gravel quarry in Staffordshire (centred on NGR SJ 976 152). The assessment area comprises woodland to the north of the quarry, within the parish of Teddesley Hay. The work was carried out by the Lancaster University Archaeological Unit (LUAU) on behalf of Hanson Aggregates, and comprised a desk-based study, compiling data from the Staffordshire Sites and Monuments Record and the Staffordshire Record Office in Stafford. This was undertaken alongside a rapid identification survey.
There are no sites recorded within the survey area on the Sites and Monuments Record, although there is an earthwork enclosure of unknown date immediately to the south (Site 01). The assessment area formed part of the royal forest of Cannock in the Middle Ages, but by the end of the sixteenth century it was part of the landed estate of the Littleton family. At least from the eighteenth century, the assessment area was part of a warren, and place name evidence indicates the former presence of keepers’ lodges in the vicinity. It appears to have been an area of traditional woodland, although much of this seems to have been cleared by the post-medieval period, and by the nineteenth century deliberate planting had again covered much of the area. Most of the current tree cover dates from the 1920s onwards.
The field survey identified several large banks within the study area, which were presumably related to early phases of commercial forestry. The survey also identified two areas of modern disturbance and a disused quarry (Site 07).
It is recommended that the large banks be recorded prior to their destruction by the proposed quarry extension.
The additional fieldwork carried out during May 2000, looked at three areas to be developed during the extension of the quarry works. These included the phase 7 extraction area, and two associated soil storage areas. No archaeological features were observed during the survey.