I see that Volume 3 of The Making of the West Midlands series was published at the end of April: Clash of Cultures?: The Romano-British Period in the West Midlands.

Surveys the archaeology (inc. posing the question “two regions?”); the fortresses and forts; then Warwickshire, Worcestershire, Herefordshire, Shropshire, Staffordshire (cropmark evidence “excluded from this volume”, it notes there). There’s also a landscape-use chapter, one on distribution of coin-finds with some heavy maths, and one that tries to join up all the ceramics evidence. The chapter on religious sites focuses on Wroxter, Coleshill, Rocester and Wall. Finally, and possibly most interestingly, “The West Midlands in the fifth and sixth centuries”, but that’s completely unavailable as a preview.

Interesting to see how everything funnelled toward Penkridge…

… and yet there’s been hardly any investigation of the site, and thus the book can only give it a short paragraph that speculates it may have been strung out along the Watling Street.