Introduction
We were invited to evaluate the geoarchaeology of a site at the Lowesmoor Trading Estate, Worcester, to help the excavating archaeologists, both in understanding the origins of the deposits and in assessing the archaeological potential of the site.
Background
The bedrock of the area was known to be calcareous mudstones of the Eldersfield Mudstone formation within the Triassic Mercia Mudstone group, and in some parts of the city of Worcester this is overlain by a series of fluvial and fluvioglacial terraces of Holocene and Devensian age. The natural soils of nearby sites were found to be Pelo-alluvia; gleys, which are mottled soils of reasonably good drainage which are waterlogged from time to time due to a changing water table. The site is situated near the middle of the former valley of the Frog Brook, which developed as a late Devensian river channel, and has been used as part of the town defences and later as the town ditch.
A number of trenches had been dug across the site and it was in these that we examined deposits and took auger samples for analysis.
Findings
The deposits examined were mainly strongly coloured mid red-brown and mid yellow-grey sandy clay, becoming mid-grey brown and increasingly mottled towards the surface containing small fragments of charcoal in places, above this the upper metre was made up of industrial debris.
Conclusions
From our investigations we were able to tell the excavating archaeologists that the deposits examined represented a build up of clayey Holocene alluvium, much of which may have come from the nearby River Severn and despite finding fragments of charcoal within the alluvial clay the deposits sampled were unlikely to preserve much evidence of archaeological activity or palaeoenvironmental change.