ROMANO-BRITISH SUFFOLK 



Blaxhall. — In a field near Grove Farm were found in 1863 Roman coins, urns, &c., and in the 

 same parish, on Blaxhall Heath, a ' tumulus with Roman urns was found in 1827' [O.S. 

 6-in. lix, SE.]. 



Blyford. — A bronze statuette of a nude Venus, 6 in. high, holding a dove in the right hand, was 

 found in a field near Blyford Bridge. It was originally in the possession of the late Rev. S. B. 

 Turner. Between Blyford and Sotterley was found an urn of bufif ware [Chart, Watling 

 Coll. in possession of Miss Nina Layard]. 



Blythburgh. — The following entries record the discovery of Roman remains : * Not many years 

 ago there were Roman urns dug up here among old buildings' [Lysons, Mag. Brit. {1730), 

 v> 193]- From Grose we have the statement, * A number of Roman urns dug up here about 

 the year 1678 ' [Grose, Antiq. of Engl, and Wales, iii, 1775]. Suckling says that after a fire 

 which damaged the village in 1676, the labourers in clearing the ground for fresh buildings 

 found several Roman urns and coins [Suckling, Hist. Suff. ii, 142]. 



Brandeston. — A Roman coin, large brass, was found here \Journ. Brit. Arch. Assoc, x, 90]. 



Bungay. — In sinking a well in Earsham Street, near the castle, in 1826, a coin, first brass, of 

 Marcus Aurelius (a.d. 161-80) and a second brass of Faustina (a.d. 138-41) were found. 

 The next year a coin of Gordian III (a.d. 238-44) was turned up in a garden near Duke's 

 Bridge [Suckling, Hist. Suff. i, 130]. 'Part of Trinity parish lies by the side of the 

 old Roman road called Stone Street at the distance of about 5 miles from the town ' 

 [ibid. 133]. Bronze coins of Nero (a.d. 54-68), Antoninus (a.d. 138-61), Aurelius 

 (a.d. 161-80), Faustina the younger (a.d. 147-76), and Carausius (a.d. 286-93), were dug 

 up in the town, and more than 1,000 minimi were ploughed up outside the common in 181 2 

 [Proc. Suff. Arch. Inst, iii, 414]. A coin of Nero (a.d. 54-68), second brass, was turned up 

 from the railway cutting on the common in 1862 (?) [East Angl. N. and Q. i, 249]. A coin 

 of Clodius Albinus (a.d. 196-7), first brass, was dug up in Mr. Lait's garden at the 'back of 

 the hills,' and another of Vespasian (a.d. 69-79), ^'''^ incuse reverse, was found near the 

 town [Raven, Hist. Suff. 30]. 



A trench across the neck of the common is marked in the O.S. maps ' Roman 

 remains,' and about the centre of it 'Roman coin found 1862.' The Stone Street, 

 running in a north-west direction, makes an angle in the town, and after crossing the River 

 Waveney starts again due north. It crosses the marches north of the river at about their 

 narrowest part, and passes about a quarter of a mile south-east of the bank called ' Roman 

 remains' [O.S. 6-in. viii, SE.]. A road, called 'Stone Street,' also runs in a north-west 

 direction through the parishes of Spexhall and Ilketshall St. Lawrence, between Bungay and 

 Halesworth [O.S. 6-in. xviii, SW.]. 



Burgh. — Near Woodbridge : 'About a mile to the south-east of Clopton.' The church 'stands 

 within the enclosure of a Roman station' [Excursions in Suff. ii, 19, 46]. Coins have been 

 found on the site ; one, possibly of Tiberius [a.d. 14-37), another of Crispus (a.d. 317-26), 

 with a second, illegible, probably of the same period, and a minim of Constantine II (a.d. 337- 

 40) [Proc. Suff. Arch. Inst, ix, 335]. 'Burgh churchyard is well scarped to the south and 

 west, and at about 200 yds. to the south the remains of a trench now filled in may be clearly 

 seen. This, at a point east-south-east of the church, turns northward, and between the two 

 churches (Burgh and Clopton, a mile away) westward, till it meets the scarp. The name 

 Castlefield is still preserved, and the late Major Rouse of Woodbridge could remember the 

 ruined walls. Here, a few years ago, a gold Roman bracelet was found, and at the further 

 end of Clopton in 1883 a boy named John Gardiner found a gold Roman coin, which he sold 

 to a watchmaker in Woodbridge. Fictile remains are found strewn on the ground' [Raven, 

 Hist. Suff. 30 et seq.]. In 1901 excavations at this place yielded 'very interesting rubbish,' 

 tiles, potsherds, painted wall-plaster, a coin or two, and other relics of a possible Roman villa 

 [^«//y.xxxvii, 342, (1901) ' Quarterly Notes,' by Prof. Haverfield]. On the O.S. Map [6-in. 

 Iviii, SW.] the field in which the church stands is marked ' site of camp,' though the traces of 

 the fosses are not given. 



Burgh Castle. — Near Yarmouth. A walled station. [For early description and plans, see 

 Sir Henry Spelman, Icenia (ed. 1723), 155 ; Camden, Brit. (ed. Gough), ii, 77, 90; Ives, 

 Garian. (ed. 1803); King, Munimenta Antiqua, ii, 52«-5, 1 16 et seq.] The following 

 details may be added to the general description of this station previously given. The body 

 of the walls is of flint rubble concrete, with lacing courses of tiles, six of which may yet 

 be seen. These courses run two tiles deep into the wall, and arc three tiles in width. The 

 spaces between these courses vary from i ft. 8 in. to 2 ft. i in. in width, showing a dressed 

 flint facing. The walls are faced on the inside, but the lacing courses are irregular and fewer 

 than on the outside, and the flint facing is ruder also. The mortar employed in the outer 

 facing is pink with coarsely-pounded tile. There is no regular rule in the employment of it 



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