A HISTORY OF NOTTINGHAMSHIRE 



Before Horsley wrote, Stukeley had been unable to discover any remains 

 of circumvallation, though he too heard much of foundations of houses and 

 walls, 



... in digging too they find great foundations for half a mile together on each side the road, 

 with much rusty iron, iron ore, and iron cinders ; so that it is probable here was an eminent 

 Roman forge. Across the road was a vast foundation of a wall, and part still remains : out 

 of one hole they showed me, has been dug up ten or fifteen load of stone ; so that it should 

 seem to have b.en a gate : the stones at the foundation are observed to have been placed 

 edgewise and very large ones, but not of a good sort. . . . They told me some very large 

 copper Roman coins had been found here, and silver too, and many pots, urns, brick, &c. ; 

 they call the money ' Brough pennies.' 76 



In foot-notes he mentions other coins which he came across (including a 

 * large brass ' of Faustina Junior), and he suggests the derivation of Collingham 

 from Colana, the later form of Crococolana. 



Roman coins have at all times been very frequent, and Mr. T. Cecil S. 

 Woolley of South Collingham 77 has a very fine series ; but those noticed by 

 earlier writers are mostly of late date (A.D. 2 50-3 50) , 78 A correspondent of 

 the Standard who signs himself 'South Collingham' 79 mentions coins of 

 Hadrian (A.D. 98-117), Gallienus (A.D. 253-68), Maximian (A.D. 300), 

 Magnentius (A.D. 350) and Gratian (A.D. 375). Fragments of Roman 

 pottery were still abundant in Wake's time (1867), and he tells a tale of 'a 

 figure in gold ' found a few years before. 80 His comment on Stukeley 's 

 reference to the inferior quality of the stone employed here is that it must 

 have been the limestone still quarried in the neighbourhood. But he adds, 

 ' I have seen some large blocks of excellent freestone, which have evidently 

 formed part of the buildings once standing at Brough.' Watkin, writing 

 in 1877, quotes the Rev. G. Fosbery, late rector of South Collingham, to 

 the effect that coins and other remains were still occasionally found on the 

 surface. 81 



At Danethorpe Hill in the parish of South Collingham and at Potter 

 Hill in that of North Collingham, at the point where the Fosse Way enters 

 the county, human remains and coffins, and more recently fragments of 

 Roman pottery, are said to have been dug up, 83 and both have been suggested 

 as possible sites of outposts for guarding the camp at Brough. The latter is 

 described by Stukeley as ' a high barrow or tumulus, where they say was a 

 Roman pottery.' 83 Of the last-named theory, however, the finds are no 

 confirmation, although Wake urged that it was implied by the name. 84 



Recent excavations by Mr. T. Cecil S. Woolley have revealed far more 

 of the Romano-British occupation. 85 He has dug trenches over a considerable 

 area in two fields lying one on either side of the Fosse, at the fourth milestone 

 from Newark and twelfth from Lincoln. The area and nature of the operations 

 are indicated in the accompanying plan. 



76 1 tin. Cur. 104. " See below. 



" Pointer, Brit. Rom. 41 ; Gibson's Camden, i, 435 ; Wake, Hist, of Collingham, z. 



" i Nov. 1884. " Op. cit. 4. 



81 Nott. Daily Guardian, 25 Jan. 1877. 



"Wake, op. cit. 2, 42; Arch, journ. xliii, 17; Brown, Hist, of Notts. 121 ; Kelly, Dir. of Notts. 

 1904,48. ** Itin. Cur. 103. 



* Matters are not improved by the suggestion that the word Crococolana has something to do with 

 'crocks,' put forth with apparent seriousness by a writer in the Standard, 31 Oct. and 3 Nov. 1884. 



84 See his paper in Thoroton Soc. Trans, x (1906), p. 63 ff. The writer is also greatly indebted to 

 Mr. Woolley for personal assistance and information. 



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