A HISTORY OF NORTHAMPTONSHIRE 



of stone for repairing Watling Street.' ' But no mosaic floors, no costly 

 ornaments, or other traces of wealth and luxury have as yet been detected, 

 nor have w^e any reason to believe that such will ever be discovered 

 there. In short, Towcester was a little Romano-British town or village, 

 possibly larger than Irchester, distinguished from it by its position on the 

 great Roman highway of Watling Street, but resembling it, and indeed 

 exceeding it, in the general simplicity of its remains and the absence of 

 objects that indicate riches and splendour. 



(</) WHILTON, NORTON 



The Itinerary of Antoninus mentions a place called Bannaventa as 

 the next station from Lactodorum, 1 2 Roman miles on the road to 

 Viroconium, and another place called Tripontium as 12 miles further 

 on.' The road in question is that which we now call Watling Street, 

 and these two ' stations ' ought to be found on or near that well known 

 way. Their exact identification has however been a matter of much 

 dispute. Talbot, the first Englishman to comment on the Itinerary, put 

 Bannaventa at Weedon Beck, and Camden, Morton, Stukeley and others 

 followed him. But Weedon is too near Towcester to agree with the 

 Itinerary mileage, and it has yielded hardly any Roman remains. Others, 

 attracted by the coincidence that the five letters avent occur in both 

 names, have placed Bannaventa at Daventry, and have tried to substantiate 

 their etymology by citing the remains on Borough Hill and at Burnt 

 Walls (p. 195). But these lie well away from Watling Street. Horsley 

 probably hit the truth when he suggested that Bannaventa might be 

 found on Watling Street itself, not far from Whilton Lodge. The 

 position suits the mileage of the Itinerary, and considerable remains 

 have been noticed here at various dates. Morton, two centuries ago, 

 observed that, ' in that part of Whilton Field which adjoins Watling 

 Street old foundations, the stones of ruined walls and the like have been 

 ploughed and digged up, and amongst the ruins some pieces of Roman 

 money.' Baker records the discovery in 181 3 of a skeleton and some 

 Constantinian coins in a field called Great Shawney near the footpath to 

 Whilton, and states that near a farm called Thrupp Grounds, in the north 

 of Norton parish, ' thick foundation walls and fragments of ancient 

 pottery ' were frequently turned up over a space of nearly 30 acres. 



' Cimden, ii. 266 ; Morton, p. 508 ; Stukeley, Itin. Curksam, p. 40 (denarius of Hadrian) ; 

 Minutes of Soc. of Antiquaries, J.inu,iry 19-26, 1748 (graves); Bridges, i. 272; Cough's Add. to 

 Camden, ii. 274 ; Baker, ii. 320; Jciii-nal of the British Archaokgical Association, vii. 109, xxi. 186 

 (inscribed lamp) ; the late Sir Henry Dryden, Antfjuary, vii. 87 and MSS. in Northampton Museum ; 

 a large collection of pottery, coins, etc., made by the late Mr. Tite, now in Northampton Museum. 

 The 'cheese strainers ' resemble one figured (without exact provenance) in the Proceedings of the Soc. of 

 Antiquaries, xiv. (1892) 173, and one found at Birdosvvald in 1896 {Transactions of the Cumberland and 

 Westmorland Arch. Soc. xiv. 426, pi. iii.). Simil.ir objects have been found elsewhere (Bursian, Aventi- 

 cum, pi. xiii., etc.). A Bactrian coin of King Menander was picked up at Towcester in 1882 {North- 

 amptonshire Notes and Queries, i. 99) ; doubtless it h.id been dropped by some returned Anglo-Indian. 



* Itin. Ant. 470, 477, 479. The MSS. of the Itinerary give several varieties of spelling, Benna- 

 venta, Bennavena, etc., and even Isannavantia ; but there can hardly be any doubt that all are corrup- 

 tions of the one form Bannaventa. The theories built on the hypothesis of two place names, one 

 commencing with B and the other with Is {Archecokgia, xxxv. 392, etc.) are baseless. 



\9(, 



