ROMANO-BRITISH NOTTINGHAMSHIRE 



animals were frequently turned up as the work proceeded, and this led to the digging of some 

 trial pits in May of that year. The discovery was described to the Archaeological Institute 

 by the architect, Mr. S. J. Nicholl, who also exhibited plans of the building. Only three 

 rooms seem to have been excavated. In the principal room, which measured 20 ft. by 17 ft., 

 was a tessellated pavement with a central design supposed, on somewhat insufficient grounds, 

 to represent Theseus in the Cretan labyrinth. It was composed of very small tesserae of the 

 local grey limestone and red grit arranged in borders of various patterns, chequers, scrolls, 

 squares, and triangles, inclosing a labyrinth pattern. The latter is said to be almost identical 

 with one found at Caerleon ; ' in the centre, which is much injured, the lower part of a 

 human figure in an attacking attitude remained. 



A projection at the south end, which, like the sides of the room, had been finished by a 

 red plaster moulding to form a plinth, might, Mr. Nichols thought, have been an altar. Near 

 a second room, paved with grey tesserae, was a passage where traces of charred wood, fragments 

 of coloured plaster, and roofing-tiles were found. The third room uncovered had no pavement. 

 Elsewhere were found walls, a stone trough full of hardened lime, fragments of wall-paintings, 

 and roof-tiles. Among the broken pottery and tiles in the trial pits was a floor covered with 

 plaster and painted. An illustration is also given of a covering tile and flanged tile ; and 

 tegulae mammatae are mentioned, proJuced by cutting away the flanges except at the corners. 

 It seems probable that the building extended far beyond the area of these excavations, which 

 were covered up shortly after they were made [Nott. Daily Guardian, 23 Feb. 1877 ; Arch. 

 Journ. xxviii, 66-74, xliii, 32 ; O.S. v, NE.]. 



SUTTON BONNINGTON. A quantity of Roman urns and coins, all well preserved, were found in 

 1825 on Kirk Hill, the supposed site of a Roman camp [Bailey, Ann. of Notts, iv, 339 ; 

 Kelly, Dir. 1904, p. 547]. 



THORPE. In 1789 a stone was found, supposed to be part of a Roman sepulchral monument, with 

 effigies of a man and woman under straight-sided canopies ; the drawing given is obviously a 

 bad one, but whatever else it may be it certainly does not look Roman. On the same 

 spot were found mouldered wood, bones apparently human, stones, and fragments of decayed 

 bricks once cemented with mortar [Gent. Mag. 1790, i, 18, 116, with plate 2, fig. 2]. A 

 fine tessellated pavement and coins are said to have been found here, but no account of their 

 discovery has been preserved [Lewis, Topog. Diet.]. On this site in connexion with the identi- 

 fication of Ad Pontem, see above, p. 6. 



THURGARTON. Numerous Roman coins, chiefly of the later Empire, were found at the Priory 

 towards the end of the i8th century [Dickinson, Antiq. in Notts, i, 97]. 



TILNE. See HAYTON. 



TORWORTH. A Roman urn (sic), loin, in diameter, found in 1820 at Mantles House; said to 

 have been covered with a globular vessel containing a human heart ! [Bailey, Ann. of Notts. 

 iv, 310]. 



UPTON. Early in the i8th century a Roman urn was turned up by the plough on the side of a 

 hill, the contents of which are described by Mr. Lamb of Southwell in a letter now preserved 

 in the Harleian MSS. [6824, fol. 51 ; Arch. Journ. xliii, 34] : 



In it were several round balls w ch fell to dust upon y e touch, and a great many round things w ch 

 seem to be Romish [Qu. Roman ?] beads, of blew and speckled colours, and of a sort of glass, a bridle, 

 curiously enamelled, y ground brass, no Reins, but only bit chain and bosses, but all so small y' they 

 seem to have been made for some less creature y a horse, lower still was found an entire egg cover'd 

 with a hard mummy [tic] as was also y top of y e urn, blackish, somew' pitchy and partly like Spanish 

 Juice [i.e. liquorice] ; w ch being broke open there were found 20 silver coins, perhaps scarce to be 

 equalled in England. 



Some of the coins seem from the description which follows to have been of Republican date ; 

 the others represent all the emperors from Julius Caesar to Domitian (B.C. 49 to A.D. 96), 

 except Titus. Many bones were also found, suggesting to the writer a burial-place. 



WIDMERPOOL. Roman coins were found in this parish (which borders on the Fosse), including a 

 silver coin of Hadrian (117-38), and a copper coin of Claudius (41-54) [Lewis, Topog. 

 Diet.]. 



WILFORD. Roman coins seem to have been found on more than one occasion. When Stukeley 

 was at Willoughby in 1722 he was told of a pot of Roman money dug up here, which is 

 probably the 'pot full of copper coins' mentioned by Gough [Stukeley, I tin. Cur. 107; 

 Deering, Nottingbamia vetus ft nova, Introd. 6, App. 286 ; Thoroton, Hist. Notts, (ed. Throsby), 

 ii, II ; Gough, Camden, ii, 399]. Laird also records finds of coins of the later emperors in 



' Morgan in Fabrications ofMonmouth and Caerleon Antiq. Soc. (1866). 



35 



