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NOTES ON THE NEIOHBOURHOOD OF NEWLAND, 

 [By Mrs. Wm. Bagnall-Oakelet.] 



In the immediate neighbourhood of Newland there is little which can be claimed 

 as the work of the ancient races who inhabited our Forest before the arrival of the 

 Romans. The great camp at Sjmiond's Yat, with its five banks of earth defend- 

 ing the peninsula, is a work of great strength and of very early date. On the road 

 between Staunton and Coleford is a large Menhir, known by the name of the Long 

 Stone ; this stands exactly due east of the Buckstone with which it may have had 

 some connection, as these monoliths are often found so placed with regard to rude 

 stone monuments, for though the Buckstone is due to natural causes, yet its 

 extraordinary appearance probably made it a subject of superstitious reverence in 

 early ages. (A few years ago another large monolith existed near St. Briavel's, 

 but it has been destroyed by the vandalism of the farmer on whose land it stood). 

 So far as I know these are the only relics of the ancient Forest people, though 

 some of the old lanes are probably their ancient trackways, and the iron-workings 

 may have supplied them with iron. We have ample proof that when the Romans 

 had gained possession of the country which lay between the Severn and the Wye, 

 they were fully alive to its value, and traces of their occupations are to be found 

 all over the district. Although no great stronghold of that people is to be found 

 here, there are small camps at Stowe and Lydney, and a fine villa exists at the 

 latter place which discoveries prove to have been the residence of someone of 

 superior rank. No great military road ran through our forest, but John Bellows 

 tells us that nearly every carriage road in it bears traces of its Roman origin. The 

 old Roman iron workings called Scowles abound here. (This name of Scowles has 

 caused considerable discussion. I am not aware that any satisfactory explanation 

 has been given). These iron workings are narrow tortuous passages where the 

 miners have followed the vein of iron ore, and left the limestone rock standing on 

 each side, often within a few feet of a similar working. In and near these scowles 

 large quantities of Roman coins have from time to time been found, and they are 

 mostly 3rd brass, or the small money which would be required for the pay of the 

 miners. Only one "find" of silver coins has been made, and that was in a 

 " working " between Bream and Lydney. One thing is remarkable about these 

 hoards ; although between three and four thousand have been described, there are 

 no coins of the reign of the Emperor Dioclesian, very few of the usurpers Carausius 

 and Allectus, and not any of the succeeding emperors (we must except the villa at 

 Lydney, where coins of all the emperors are found), which looks as though the 

 Romans ceased to work these iron mines after the close of the third century. 



Of Saxon times we have but a confused history of invasions and feuds, and 

 the only work which remains to us of that period is " Offa's Dyke." This great 

 territorial barrier which King Offa in a.u. 779 placed between his people and the 

 Welsh, runs within a mile of Newland, and between it and the Wye. At this 

 place it skirts an ancient camp called Highbury, but whether the camp is of the 



