A Roman enclosed settlement with evidence for early medieval Iron smelting at Staveley Lane, Eckington

Excavation by Oxford Archaeology in advance of residential development in Eckington investigated
part of a rural settlement dating from the Roman period, situated within a large curvilinear enclosure
ditch. The settlement was occupied from the late Iron Age or early Roman period until c AD 200, but
had been substantially affected by ploughing during the medieval and modern periods and few
internal features survived. The enclosure was subsequently used for an episode of iron smelting,
which was dated by radiocarbon to the mid-7th-8th century. This represents an extremely rare
discovery, since a recent survey identified only eight smelting sites in the entire country that date from
the early and middle Anglo-Saxon period.