A HISTORY OF WARWICKSHIRE 



(&) HIGH CROSS 



High Cross is a small hamlet, in which the parishes of Claybrooke, 

 Wibtoft, Copston and Wigston converge, on the edge of Warwickshire 

 and Leicestershire. It stands on comparatively elevated ground, with a 

 wide prospect towards the north-east. Here Fosse and Watling Street 

 cross, and this fact has given the spot an unsubstantial reputation as 

 being (in Stukeley's phrase) the centre of England. No traces of 

 Roman occupation are at present visible, but the writers of the sixteenth 

 and seventeenth centuries testify to considerable remains. Camden states 

 that foundations of hewn stone lay under the furrows on both sides of the 

 road and coins were frequently found. Burton in 1622 mentions 'many 

 ancient Roman coynes, great square stones and brickes and other rubble 

 of ancient building,' and describes the coins as ranging from Caligula 

 (A.D. 40) to Constantine the Great. Dugdale speaks of ' large stones, 

 Roman brick, with ovens and wells, coins of silver and brass,' and adds 

 that the earth of the site was darker and richer than elsewhere. Elias 

 Ashmole in 1657 saw a foundation measuring 12 by 18 feet, which he 

 took to be a temple. But later writers add very little except a few coins 

 a denarius of Mark Antony, another of Domitian, and copper of the 

 late third and the fourth century down to Gratian and it does not seem 

 possible now to decide the precise position or the size or the character 

 of the Roman settlement. 1 We can only say that our evidence indicates 

 permanent inhabitation of some sort perhaps a posting station, or 

 perhaps a village. The situation of the place, at the crossing of Fosse 

 and Watling Street, might suggest, at first sight, the probability of a 

 large settlement. This argument has not much weight however by 

 itself, and other cases might be quoted of Roman roads crossing with 

 even less of a settlement at the Four Cross Roads than we seem able to 

 trace at High Cross. In Hampshire, for instance, the road which runs 

 south-west from Silchester intersects near Andover that which runs 

 north-west from Winchester ; and though the neighbourhood was well 

 populated in Roman days, no definite traces of Roman inhabitation have 

 been noted at the actual crossing. 



Whatever its character, its name at least is known. The Antonine 

 Itinerary * places Venonae at the point where Fosse and Watling Street 

 cross, and it also assigns to Venonae distances from other places known 



1 Camden, ii. 297 (in Cough's ed. of 1806) ; Wm. Burton's Leicestershire, p. 72 ; Dugdale, i. 71 ; 

 Elias Ashmole in Nichols' Leicestershire, i. p. cli. and Bibl. Topogr. Britann. vii. 287. For later writers see 

 Stukeley, I tin. Curiosum, p. no, ed. z ; Horsley, Britannia Romano, pp. 385, 420 ; Nichols* Leicester- 

 shire, iv. 125. Mr. Goodacre of Ullesthorpe has a denarius of Domitian and a late (? fifth century) coin 

 from High Cross. Gough (Add. to Camden, ii. 303) and some later writers, mistaking Stukeley, have 

 transferred to High Cross some burial urns which were really found at Monks Kirby (p. 238). I have 

 omitted Camden's assertion that the site was once called Cleycester, because (as Dugdale observes) 

 Camden is the sole authority for it : it occurs apparently in no documents or charter, and is probably 

 Camden's own invention. 



* Itin. Ant. 470, 4 ; 477, 3 ; 479, 4. The name occurs only in the oblique case Venonis : I 

 have followed common usage in assuming a nominative Venonae though, for all we can tell, it may 

 have been Venoni or Venona. The orthography Venonis seems preferable to Vennonis : Bennones, 

 Benonis are certainly corrupt forms. Some writers have evolved a tribe of Vennones, for which in 

 Britain there is no kind of authority. 



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