ROMANO-BRITISH LEICESTERSHIRE 



A painted vase of Salopian ware, now in the Leicester Museum, was found in 1877 ; a 

 coin of Vespasian (A.D. 70-9), and a stone hammer found in 1870, near the site of the other 

 things, are also in the Leicester Museum [Rep. Mus. Committee']. These finds indicate the exist- 

 ence of a Roman cemetery, 

 and consequently of a 

 neighbouring settlement, 

 probably a villa of some 

 importance, judging by 

 the remains found. 



BARKBY. At a place on the 

 Fosse Way called ' Round 

 Hill,' the site of a tumu- 

 lus now levelled, between 

 Thurmaston and Barkby, 

 an urn was found, which 

 is now in the Leicester 

 Museum. [Leic. Arch. 

 Soc. vii, 360]. 



BEACON HILL (Charnwood 

 Forest). A bronze celt 

 of the ordinary flat form, 

 a little more than 5 in. in 

 length, and two large brass 

 coins, were found on the 

 north-west side of the 

 Beacon Hill, about 1839. 

 One coin was of Vespa- 

 sian (A.D. 70-9), and 

 was remarkable for having 

 in front of the bust the 

 figures Ixxxiii, very deeply 

 incised. It is suggested 

 that it may have been 



used as a military tessera. The other coin was a sestertius of Marcus Aurelius (A.D. 161-80) 

 [ante, 'Early Man;' Proc. Soc. Antiq. (Ser. 2), i, 44]. 



BELVOIR PRIORY. During excavations in 1900 on the site of the priory, among other antiquities, 

 fragments of late Celtic or Roman pottery, part of a bronze stylus, &c., were found 

 [Journ. Brit. Arch. Assoc. vii, 321]. 



BITTESBY, near High Cross (Venonae). An urn and coins were turned up by the plough at an 

 early date ; Burton is said to have had some of the coins [Throsby, Views of Leic. ii, 301]. 



BURROUGH ON THE HILL. Five miles north of Melton Mowbray, and nearly a mile north of the 

 village, is Burrough Camp, a fortified position of great strength, of which the circumvallation 

 is irregular in shape, governed by the natural features of its position [/w/, 'Ancient Earth- 

 works' ; Leic. Lit. Soc. 328]. Leland and Stukeley \_Iter. Cur. i, 132] speak decisively of the 

 existence of walls, but no traces of masonry have lately been discovered, though in 1774 an 

 article in Archtsologia mentioned the manner in which the Romans ' laid the foundations of the 

 walls at the town of Burrough-field in Leicestershire, where the stones were set edge-wise in 

 clay, but the superstructure was laid with lime mortar ' \_Arch. iv, 76]. Some excavations 

 were made in 1853, and signs of Celtic occupation were thought to have been discovered, i.e. 

 rude potsherds, flint arrow-heads, and the remains of a skeleton, buried in a crouched position, 

 but Roman coins have also been unearthed, and a dagger and spearhead thought to be Roman 

 [Leic. Arch. Soc. vii, 23]. 



BREEDON. A tall jug of red ware was dug up in Breedon churchyard in 1863. It is now in the 

 museum at Ashby de la Zouch [Leic. Arch. Soc. i, 137]. 



BURBAGE. A large heap of animals' horns, said to be of the Roman period, were found here in 

 1864 [Leic. Arch. Soc. ii, 313]. 



CLAYBROOKE. (See High Cross.) 



COSTON (3 miles from Saxby). A quern was found here 9 in. in diameter, 2 in. deep, with the 

 piece of iron on which the upper stone revolved still remaining [Leic. Arch. Soc. vii, 131]. 



GRANGE. A small Roman coin was found here in 1864 [Leic. Arch. Soc. ii, 352]. 



CROFT. Croft Hill looks down on the ' Langham Bridges ' as they are called, which cross the 

 Soar to the south of Narborough on the Fosse Way ; they are a series of arches, built of 



211 



AMPHORA, GLASS VESSELS, AND LAMT, FOUND AT BARROW UPON SOAR 



