Page:VCH Herefordshire 1.djvu/251

ROMANO-BRITISH HEREFORDSHIRE one of the principal centres of the great industry which extended over the neighbourhood and the adjacent Forest of Dean.' The area of the town occupies three or four fields, which in the middle of the 1 8th century were covered with extensive thickets concealing the broken walls and rubbish. Apart from the frequent discovery of scoriae, ' hand-blomeries,' and ' floors,' the site is marked by the appearance of the soil, which is black, contrasting strongly with the red soil of the country round. No discoveries have been recorded before the middle of the i8th century, and ineffectual searches had been made at Walford and elsewhere, until the true site was accidentally discovered by Mr. Merrick, who found numerous coins (spoken of by the country people as ' fairy coins ') and bronze objects, which he disposed of eventually for j^i5." Finally, Mr. Merrick, being the proprietor of the estate, determined to take it in hand and clear the ground, and in 1785 a deep cavity was dis- covered in ploughing. Portions of the walls were then standing, and on an excavation being made to a depth of four or five feet, a floor was exposed, on which was laid a quantity of blackened wheat. Another floor is described as ' of sand.' According to Britton and Brayley there was found ' an immense quantity of Roman coins, and some British. Among the antiquities were fibulae, lares, lachrymatories, lamps, rings, and fragments of tessellated pave- ments. Some pillars were also discovered with stones having holes for the jambs of the doors, and a vault or two in which was earth of a black colour and in a cinerous state. . . . Innumerable pieces of grey and red pottery lie scattered over the whole tract (1805), some of them of patterns by no means inelegant. . . . Some of the large stones, which appear to have been used in building, display strong marks of fire.' In 1804 'several skeletons were discovered ; and also the remains of a stone wall, apparently the front of a building, the stones well worked and of considerable size.' The coins were chiefly of the Lower Empire, but extended from Claudius (a.d. 41) to Constantius (a.d. 340). Cooke also mentions foundations of a building 27 ft. by 1 6 ft., urns, statues, bronzes, earrings, fibulae, pins, nails, keys, and other objects, and Fosbroke a large bronze head with rams' horns, as found by Merrick." A bronze statuette of Diana was exhibited to the Society of Antiquaries in 1788,^' but was subsequently lost ; glass beads, cornelian and crystal intaglios, fragments of pottery, &c., are also recorded." Neither those above mentioned nor any other small finds appear to be of special importance. It is significant that no pavements have been discovered, a further proof of the theory advanced by Fosbroke that excavations so far have not reached 'Wright, Wanderings, 27 ; Fosbroke, op. cit. zl ; Nicholls, Ironmaking in the Olden Times, 9 ; ^rch. Camhr. (Ser. z), iv, jzi; Duncumb-Cooke, op. cit. iii, Z17; Brayley and Britton, Beauties of Engl, and Wales, vi, 514 ; Woolhope Club Trans. l88z, p. 24.9 ; see above, p. 1 7 1. "Wright, op. cit. 25 ; Fosbroke, op. cit. 36 ; Duncumb-Cooke, op. cit. iii, zi5 ; Murray's Guide to Herefs. 1884, p. Z56. " Brayley and Britton, loc. cit. ; Fosbroke, op. cit. 36 ; Duncumb-Cooke, Hist, of Heref. i, 28 ; iii, Z15 ; Wright, Wanderings, zj ; Woolhope Club Trans. 1882, p. 250; Jixh. Journ. xxxiv, 358 ; Jrcl. Surv. Index. " Arch, ix, 368 ; Soc. Ant. MS. Min. xxii, 394, 8 May 1788. An engraving of this, dated 1843, is in the possession of Mr. Pilley ; the figure is about five inches high, of the usual type, apparently represented as drawing a bow. " Some of the writers referred to in the previous note appear to have confused the earlier finds with those described in 1870 (see below). 189