A significant portion of the Community Orchards and Gardens sites encompass the scheduled ancient monument Metchley Roman Fort.

This means that any work on the site has to have scheduled monument consent from English Heritage and the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport.

The site is protected by the Ancient Monuments and Archaeological Areas Act 1979 and as such every detail of work on the site has to be agreed with English Heritage. University Hospitals Birmingham NHS Foundation Trust (UHB) will be working closely with local archaeologists and English Heritage as the project develops and are grateful for the help and support English Heritage has given.

This does mean there are restrictions on what we can and cannot do, such as not digging anywhere on the site - which is why bulbs will be planted with dibbers or a turf spade, we will also be limited in how accessible we can make the site for people with disabilities as we cannot construct paths that might damage the archaeology. We will be working with the restrictions and you will see from the consent and the detailed description of work how we intend to carry this out.

For information on the history of the fort, visit the Birmingham City Council website.

For more information about English Heritage and scheduled ancient monuments, visit the English Heritage website.

To read the full terms of the scheduled ancient monument consent document for the Community Orchards and Gardens at UHB is available to download below.