204 PROCEEDINGS OF THE COTTESWOLD CLUB 



the valley as well as by vise over the crown of the hills. 

 This valley road, it is now clear, ran from Leckhampton 

 by Sandy Lane, the Old Bath Road, Hale's Road, and 

 Cemetery Road; and from Prestbury it ascended to Cleeve 

 Cloud by a now disused trackway, which, two centuries 

 ago, was the main road to Winchcombe. Stone paving of 

 possible Roman date may in places still be seen ; and 

 the names Sandy Lane and Sandford (on the Old Bath 

 Road), judging from their roots and associations, indicate 

 the line of a Roman highway. In view of these facts, 

 there was an interesting discussion as to the date of the 

 camp on Battledown. Mr. Witts omits it from the list 

 of camps in his "Archaeological Handbook of Gloucester- 

 shire." He did so, he told the members, on the advice 

 of the late Mr. S. H. Gael, an eminent local antiquary, 

 who held that the entrenchments were made during the 

 war between Charles L and the Parliament. Against this 

 theory of the origin of the camp, it may be urged that 

 there is no evidence, in the very full journals of the war, 

 that Battledown was visited for more than a few hours by 

 the combatants of cither side ; while it is only reasonable 

 to suppose that the Romans would have occupied a 

 height which commanded one of their important lines of 

 communication. 



At Whittington the members of the Club saw ample 

 evidence of Roman occupation. Nearly forty years ago, 

 excavations in a field known as Wycombe, near the 

 Andoversford Hotel, revealed the foundations of Roman 

 buildings of considerable size. Amongst the embedded 

 remains were a very large quantity of pottery (including 

 plain and figured Samian), several hundred coins (extend- 

 ing from the earlier emperors to Areadus), some sculp- 

 tured stones, fibulae, &c., and a beautifully preserved 

 bronze statuette, believed to be of Mars. The late Mr. C. 

 W. Laurence made a careful record of the discovery 



