ROMANO-BRITISH NORFOLK 



Castle Rising 



Caston 



Cawston . . 



COCKLEY ClEY 



COLNEY . . . 



represent a Roman earthen camp of lo or 12 or (according to 

 others) 22 acres in size, and various finds of Roman objects have 

 been adduced to support this idea. But the ' camp,' so far as I 

 can judge without excavation, is not definitely Roman in character, 

 and hardly any of the objects seem to have been found in or near 

 it. (i) Dr. Jessop tells me that he has noticed one or two little 

 bits of Samian among the contents of Anglian burial urns in the 

 north of the parish, (ii) Harrod states that Roman potsherds were 

 unearthed in excavating the circular earthworks north and west 

 of the keep. But these potsherds have never been seen since ; they 

 may be stray pieces from Anglian burial urns or even Anglian 

 potsherds themselves, mistaken (as often) for Roman, (iii) Blome- 

 field instances coins of Vespasian and Constantine — where found, 

 he does not say — and an intaglio with an emperor's head, found 

 in Arundel Close, over two miles to the north of the ' camp.' (iv) 

 Woodward adds a coin of Faustina, locality omitted, (v) Mr. Fox 

 saw bronze coins of Tetricus (i), Diocletian (6), Maximian (8), 

 Allectus (i), Chlorus (4), and some fibulae in the collection, now 

 dispersed, of the late Rev. T. Jones of Sporle. Whence exactly 

 these came is doubtful. Mr. Jones seems not to have always re- 

 corded localities minutely. I gather, however, from a letter of 

 Mrs. Jones, that some of them were found in the north of Castle- 

 acre parish, and some in Newton, the adjoining parish to the east, 

 (vi) The Rev. J. H. Bloom has shown me nine coins, an illegible 

 ' First and Second Brass,' and seven ' Third Brass,' one each of 

 Gallienus, Postumus, Allectus, Gal. Val. Maximianus, Licinius, 

 Crispus, Constantius II., found a mile or so north of the ' camp.' 



I cannot regard this meagre and scattered evidence as adequate to 

 prove the camp Roman, still less to prove it Roman of the first 

 century, as Mr. Fox conjectures. It indicates, at the utmost, a 

 cottage or two, standing perhaps beside the Peddar's Way (which 

 runs through Castleacre parish, and earthworks), somewhere about 

 A.D. 300. But this may very likely have been to the north of the 

 parish, and not in the vicinity of the ' camp.' See Blomefield, 

 viii. 377 ; Harrod, p. 105 ; J. H. Bloom, Notices Historical and 

 Antiquarian of Castleacre (London : 1843), P- ^7 5 Archaological 

 Journal, xlvi. 358 (Fox), xlvii. i ; Archesologia, xxiii. 371 ; 

 'Journal of the British Archaological Association, xiv. 208. Kerrich's 

 plans [British Museum, MS. Addl. 6,735, p. 72 ; 6,753, p. 97] 

 are not of much interest. 



Woodward in Archaologia, xxiii. 360, Harrod, p. 43, and others 

 place here a Roman 'camp,' calling some of the earthworks 

 Roman. But this is most unlikely, and no Roman remains have 

 ever been found here. Spelman {Icenia, p. 144) mentions a coin 

 of Constantine the Great, but only as found in the neighbourhood 

 [in vicinia effossus). 



Silver ring and hoard of about 300 silver and bronze, found Novem- 

 ber, 1820, in digging a claypit ; they lay in rolls, and included 

 Republican (Antony), Nero, Vespasian, Titus, Domitian, Nerva, 

 Trajan, Plotina, Hadrian, Sabina, Pius, Marcus and the elder and 

 younger Faustina — a hoard of the type described in Archceologia, 

 liv. 474-494 \_Archaologia, xx. 577]. 



Also a hoard found 1 8 1 6, in an urn, coins of Theodosius, Arcadius, 

 Honorius \_ibid. 579]. 



Bronze coin of Faustina, found 1728 [Blomefield, vi. 268]. 



' Third Brass ' of Constantine the Great [Norfolk Archeology, iii. 42 1 ] . 



Pottery called Roman [Norfolk Archeology, vi. 216]. But the urns 

 in Norwich Museum, and those shown on the plates in Archao- 

 logia, xiv. I and Dawson Turner, MS. 23,054, p. 82, are not 

 Roman. 



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