1 INTRODUCTION Site Location There is currently a proposal for a housing development on land off Simpson's Lane, Legge's Hill, Broseley (Fig. 1). The site in question is a 0.2ha area of open ground to the rear of Broseley Wood House; the eastern half of site is at present covered by graded spoil, and the western half is occupied by a level yard surface and concrete slab, creating a terrace on the steep hillside on the west side of King Street. History of the Site There is a long and well-documented tradition of clay tobacco pipemaking in Broseley. Legge's Hill probably derives its name from the Legg family, who were producing clay tobacco pipes in Broseley in the mid to late 17th century (Oswald, 1975, 32, 33, and 191) and it is likely that their pipeworks lay in close proximity to this site. The site is, however, also known to be the site of the William Southorn & Co. Tobacco Pipeworks (the Legge's Hill pipeworks), established by William Southorn probably in 1823 (Higgins et al, 1988), and in use as a pipeworks until the 1930s. This pipeworks is thought to have been the first purpose-built clay tobacco pipe factory, making this a site of potential national importance (Ironbridge Institute Research Paper No. 53). Following the transferring of the Southorn's pipemaking business to their King Street site in the 1930s, the site appears to have been used by a gate manufacturing business, still run by a member of the Southorn family (Higgins et al, 1988). By the 1960s the site had been cleared and a new steel- framed building erected. This has also since been removed, leaving only its reinforced concrete floor on the now empty site. Previous Work A historical survey of William Southorn & Co.'s operations on both its Legge's Hill and King Street sites was undertaken as part of an evaluation of the latter site by the Ironbridge Institute in 1987-8 (Higgins et al, 1988). The site of the Legge's Hill pipeworks was the subject of an evaluation carried out in 1990 by students of the Ironbridge Institute as part of a training exercise (Ironbridge Institute Research Paper No. 53). The evaluation consisted of a documentary survey and the collection of surface finds from the site. Presumed industrial structures on the site were documented, largely from the evidence of 19th and 20th century maps, and a letterhead of William Southorn and Co. based on an original print of 1851-60. The surface collection of finds suggested the presence of post-medieval pottery production and late 19th century doll manufacturing in the vicinity of the site, as well as the documented clay tobacco pipe production. Archaeological Potential The documentary work undertaken by the Ironbridge Institute has demonstrated that the site is of national and even international importance. However, the site has been affected by past development and recent earthmoving. It has therefore been deemed necessary to undertake an archaeologoical evaluation of the proposed development area prior to the determination of a planning application in order to assess the state of archaeological survival and the likely impact on it of the proposed development. 2 AIMS AND OBJECTIVES A brief for the archaeological evaluation of the site was prepared by M D Watson, Senior Archaeologist, Leisure Services Department, Shropshire County Council (Watson, 1992). This evaluation is intended to provide information enabling an informed and reasonable planning decision to be reached with regard to any necessary archaeological provision for the site. The evaluation exercise was required to locate any archaeological features or deposits and to assess their survival, quality, condition, and significance. Options for the management of the archaeological resource, including any further archaeological provision considered necessary, would then be recommended, without prejudice to the decision of the local Planning Authority or the views of its advisors. The evaluation was carried out in February 1992 by the writer, with the assistance of local volunteers, for the Archaeology Unit of the Leisure Services Department, Shropshire County Council. 3 THE EVALUATION The Excavations Two trenches, each approximately 6m long by x 1.5m wide were located at points where significant ground disturbance was likely to coincide with documented industrial structures (Fig. 1). The presence of the large reinforced concrete slab (see above) restricted the positioning of trenches. The trenches were opened up by a JCB-type mechanical excavator, and were then cleaned and recorded by hand. Trench A: Trench A was excavated to a maximum depth of 1.22m below the present ground surface, where the surface of a natural deposit of coal (Fig.2; 1115 and 1138) was encountered. Thin layers of grey (1114) and white (1113) clay overlay this coal deposit. A large rectangular cut (1112) of uncertain date had been made into these deposits and was then backfilled and sealed with massive dumps of mixed yellow, white, and grey clay and cinders (1108-11 and 1131-37). Of these, layer 1110 produced fragments of sagger, and layer 1137 a fragment of red earthenware with an internal black glaze and a small fragment of manganese mottled ware, suggesting a possible late 17th century date for these deposits. At the extreme northern end of the trench, these fills were cut by a pit (1107), whose primary fill was a deposit of cinders (1106) containing a large quantity of pottery wasters and some kiln furniture. The pottery was all of a single type, consisting of a hard, buff fabric with a reddish brown slip and a brown, iron-rich glaze. The bases of a number of the vessels bore a roughly incised letter 'A'. The pottery had all been overfired, causing the glaze to blister and run. The forms represented included tankards, cups, and chamber pots. The wasters were of a type of pottery dateable to c.1680-1720 and classed as type Ad(iii) in the Ironbridge Gorge Museum's pottery typology (Jones, 1988) The archaeological sequence then appeared to have been considerably truncated by recent disturbance. A service trench carrying a tin pipe of about 0.15m diameter was cut to a depth of about 0.7m from north to south and was revealed in the western section of the trench. The eastern section showed that the site had been cleared at a depth of 0.4m below the present ground surface. A reinforced concrete platform 0.1m thick was laid over a rubble hardcore 0.3m thick over the western part of the site (Trench A ran alongside the eastern edge of this platform). H-section steel uprights set in concrete surrounds were positioned at approximately 5m intervals along the edge of the platform. These uprights had been cut off at ground level. A yard surface comprising about 0.4m depth of grey stone chippings (1102) covered the eastern part of the site. Trench B: A similar sequence was observed in Trench B. The earliest deposit encountered here was a layer of yellow clay (Fig. 3; 1124). This was at first thought to be the natural subsoil, but on cleaning, the presence of occasional fragments of saggar within the clay showed this was not the case. The yellow clay layer sloped down to the west considerably at the western edge of the trench. It may be that the clay was following the slope of the underlying ground surface, or perhaps that it had been cut by a large, shallow pit. The presence of the concrete slab limited the wesern extent of Trench B and prevented clarification of this point. Whichever, a sequence of deposits subsequently built up against the clay at the western end of the trench. The earliest of these was a layer of greyish brown silty sand (1130) containing a large proportion of crushed, fired clay, giving the layer a reddish colour. This layer also produced fragments of saggar, a piece of firebrick, fragments of what may be kiln lining, and two clay pipe bowls of early 18th century type, one with a conjoining fragment of stem bearing the maker's mark of Sam Roden. This deposit almost certainly represents debris and waste from a pipe kiln. It was sealed by a layer of cinders 0.1m thick (1129) and this by a layer of light grey clay (1128) and grey clay (1145). These in turn were sealed by a deposit of charcoal and cinders (1125) up to 0.8m deep. The surface of this charcoal layer and the yellow clay were both cut by a number of features. With the exception of the cut for the tin pipe, which was seen at the extreme western end of the trench, these cuts had been so truncated by later site clearance that only the bases of these features remained (1139; 1141; 1123). The site clearance was evidenced by a spread of rubbly greyish clay (1121) over which was laid the hardcore (1120) and reinforced concrete platform (1119) and the grey stone chipping yard surface (1118). A recent test-pit (1117) was revealed in the south facing section of this trench. Conclusions No trace of industrial structures or deposits relating to the 19th century pipeworks were encountered in the evaluation trenches. In part at least this may be due to the various earthmoving operations and landscaping activities carried out on the site in recent times. Furthermore, the documentary evidence collected by the Ironbridge Institute would seem to indicate that the early 19th C structures occupied the southern part of site, and presumably lay to the south of the area of the proposed building plots. The only evidence relating to the Southorn Co.'s pipeworks recovered during the period of the evaluation were a quantity of fragments of clay pipe bearing Southorn maker's stamps and a number of dolls' limbs manufactured from pipeclay within an unstratified surface collection made during the course of the evaluation.