272 South Wilts in Romano- British Times. 



able to trace a dyke, or track, showing through the corn-land, 

 which appeared to lead from these habitations on Bidcombe to the 

 springs of water in the valley at Lower Shute, where the stream 

 rises which feeds Shearwater. There are four settlements between 

 Chicklade and Stockton, besides the immense settlement above 

 Stockton and on the north of Groveley, known as " Stockton 

 Works " and " Groveley Works." The Stockton settlement covers 

 sixty -two acres ; the Gi'oveley settlement covering sixty acres, is 

 nearly a mile long, and there is a broad and deep ditch, now 

 overgrown with brushwood, connecting the two. The second 

 centre of population is on the hills along the north side of the 

 valley from Wylye to Heytesbury ; connected with this centre 

 are eight settlements dotted about on the high quadrilateral 

 plain between Stapleford, the Cheverell Hills, and Battlesbury. 

 The third centre is the Roman settlement in the valley of the 

 Wylye, in the neighbourhood of Bishopstrow. On this centre 

 Hoare (speaking of an earlier age) remarks that the barrows, in 

 the meadows between Upton and Boreham are more numerous 

 and larger than anywhere else. 



The practised eye easily detects the traces of habitations. The 

 surface of the turf is unequal and loose, not compact like the virgin 

 down ; the herbage is greener ; the earth black, and sprinkled with 

 fragments of pottery turned up by moles and rabbits. Sometimes 

 the lines of habitations can be made out, as they can still be made 

 out at Hill Deverell, and as Hoare made them out at Knook and 

 Imber. Many of the houses were warmed with flues in the Roman 

 style. ^ At Knook there were brick flues, as also at Longbridge 

 Deverell, Hill Deverell, Yarnbury Castle, and Stockton. Roman 

 coins have been found at Knook, in large numbers; at Battlesbury, 

 Scratchbury, Cotley Hill, Heytesbury field, near Bowlsbury Knoll, 

 Hill Deverell, Stockton, and the high ground called Warminster 

 Common. The bones of animals and the iron tools point to an 

 agricultural and pastoral community, while the frequency of coins 

 and the network of roads point to a considerable trade, which is 



' Hoare, Ancient Wilts, 85. 



