For those who have always assumed that Birmingham started life in the Industrial Revolution this book will be a revelation. The physical remains left by its past inhabitants reveal a story that starts in the Old Stone Age and continues, through later prehistoric, Roman and medieval times, right up to the Cold War of the twentieth century. The area covered by Michael Hodder's ground-breaking account is the present-day city of Birmingham, extending from Sutton Coldfield in the north to Longbridge in the south.

Much of the archaeological evidence for Birmingham's past comes from research and fieldwork carried out relatively recently. The evidence consists of surviving buildings, fragments of buildings or architectural details, earthworks, features visible on aerial photographs or historic maps, excavated remains, features detected by geophysical survey, objects found whilst fieldwalking and chance finds. The book comes complete with an annotated list of sites that can be visited.