A HISTORY OF NORTHAMPTONSHIRE 



(10) Weekley, near Kettering. Here foundations, tessellated pave- 

 ments and potsherds have been found on the north side of the village at 

 Castle Hedges near Boughton House, and coins have been dug up in 

 front of Boughton House and at the bowling green (Vespasian, Trajan, 

 etc.). On the south side of the village, near the Kettering boundary, 

 many coins, ranging from Vespasian to Valentinian, have been found in 

 a field called Blackmiles, and an earthwork has been traced, more or 

 less conjecturally, connecting the two sites.* Neither site has been 

 explored. 



(11) Lowick, near Thrapston. A piece of tessellated pavement, 

 1 1 by 3 feet in size, is said to have been found in 1736 in this parish 

 near Drayton House.^ 



(12) Woodford, near Thrapston. ' On the south side of the river 

 Nyne (Nene) in Woodford field are manifest signs of a place possessed 

 by the Romans. On that called the Meadow Furlong we now find 

 abundance of the Roman dice-like bricks, as also many pieces of oddly 

 engraven tiles.' So Morton. One or two fourth century coins and an 

 urn have also been found here.' 



(13) Raunds. Here a spot once and perhaps still called Mallows 

 Cotton, on slightly rising ground between the Hogdyke and the 

 boundary of Ringstead parish, has yielded evidences of permanent 

 occupation — foundations, coins, pottery. Potsherds may still be picked 

 up there and surface indications of buildings are visible. The site has 

 been described as that of a ' camp ' or fort. But nothing has ever been 

 found to support this view ; the alleged earthworks bear not the least 

 resemblance to a camp or fort, and we may most naturally suppose that 

 the remains belong to a ' villa.'* 



(14) Stanwick. Here a mile and a quarter south of Mallows 

 Cotton, fragments of a tessellated pavement are said to have been found 

 at the further end of ' the meadow furlong.' I was told on the spot that 

 the site is west of the village, between it and the Nene, and near the 

 south end of a green lane (sometimes fancied to be a Roman road), 

 which runs north towards Mallows Cotton. ° 



(15) Brixworth. Here reused Roman bricks may be seen in the walls 

 of the Saxon church, and Roman pottery has been found — for instance, 

 in Lodge Leys field, a quarter of a mile north of the church — and Roman 

 coins of Pius, Carausius and others have been picked up. These evidences 

 seem adequate to prove the existence of some dwelling. But the often 



' Morton, p. 530; Bridges, ii. 344; Stukeley, Letters, iii. 64, 72 (with a wild idea of a 

 camp of Ostorius) ; Charles Wise, The Compotus of the Manor of Kettering for 1292 (Kettering, 1899), 



P- 82. 



2 Gough, Brit. Topogr. ii. 48, referring to the Minutes of the Society of Antiquaries, which I have 

 searched in vain ; from Gough, Evans and Britton, p. 18 10. Gough says that the mosaic was engraved 

 by Vertue for Lady Germaine. 



3 Morton, p. 529, hence Bridges, ii. 265, 269, and Gough, Add. to Camden, ii. 282. 



* Ibid, p. 516 (hence Bridges ii. 190 ; Gough, Add. to Camden, ii. 275 ; Reynolds, p. 475, 

 etc.) ; Whellan, p. 925. The earthwork at Mill Cotton near Ringstead Station is sometimes coupled 

 with this site, but it seems not Roman at all. 



6 Bridges, ii. 194 ; hence Reynolds, p. 463, etc. 



194 



