A HISTORY OF WARWICKSHIRE 



(e) ALCESTER 



In its course through Warwickshire the Roman road called Icknield 

 or Rycknield Street passes the little country town of Alcester, lying 

 among flat meadows near the confluence of the Arrow and the Alne. 

 Leland and Camden recognized the site as ancient ; Dugdale was perhaps 

 the first who realized its Roman character, and since his time numerous, 

 though not very important, discoveries have been recorded. The 

 principal finds seem to have been made in the fields called Blacklands 

 which lie on the south and south-west of the present town, towards 

 the sewage works and the village of Arrow. Dugdale notes that 

 ' old foundations, Roman bricks and coins had been frequently found,' 

 and that ' the greatest tokens of buildings ' occurred in Blacklands 

 and towards Arrow. The cemetery of the place lay apparently 

 between Alcester and Arrow, near the spot called Grunt Hill. Here, 

 for instance, was found about 1866 a stone cofHn with two skeletons 

 (one a later intrusion), which is now in the Warwick Museum, and 

 other graves and burial urns have been noticed, though not properly 

 recorded. Some noteworthy remains have also been discovered in other 

 parts of the town. The Rev. J. H. Bloom tells me that bits of paving, 

 thought to be Roman, were found when the Baptist chapel was built, in 

 the north-east of the town. A curious monument is built up in a wall 

 adjoining the rectory, west of the church. This is a much mutilated 

 torso, 42 inches long by 20 inches broad, with face flaked off and legs 

 lost. It appears to have represented a male bearded figure, dressed in a 

 sort of tunic or chiton ; the left leg is advanced, the left arm drawn 

 back, and drapery depends from the left shoulder (fig. 5). The whole 

 is too ill-preserved for safe interpretation, but it may, I think, be accepted 

 as Roman. Its origin is unknown, but it was doubtless found somewhere 

 in Alcester. Another interesting find was made about 1638 in the 

 same locality, and is thus recorded by the Rev. Samuel Clarke, rector of 

 Alcester and afterwards of St. Benet Fink, London, in a noteworthy 

 passage : 



[At Alcester] in plowing and digging, even until this day, are found many 

 very ancient pieces of copper money, some of which I have, and among them one of 

 Vespasian with Judeea Capta upon it. When I was Rector there, about 1638, my 

 next Neighbour, whose house joyned to the Churchyard, being about to sink a Seller, I 

 lent him one of my men to assist him therein, and after they had digged about three 

 or four Foot deep, they Encountered with two Urns not far asunder. In the one 

 there was nothing but some ashes ; the other was full of Medals, set edglong as full as 

 it could be thrust : My man judging it only to be of that Copper-money which they 

 find so oft about the Town, set it carelessly upon the ground by him : And the Town, 

 consisting of Knitters, some of them coming to see the Work, picked out some pieces 

 of this Money : At last one brought in a piece to me, which upon tryal I found to be 

 Silver and thereupon sent for the Pot into my House : ... In the midst whereof I 

 found sixteen pieces of gold, as bright as if they had been lately put in, and about 

 eight hundred pieces of Silver, and yet no two of them alike, and the latest of them 

 above fourteen hundred years old : They contained the whole History of the Roman 

 Empire from Julius Casar till after Constantine the Great's time : Each of the Silver 

 pieces weighed about sevenpence, and each of the Gold, about fifteen or sixteen 

 shillings [Geographical Description of all the Countries in the known florid, by Samuel 

 Clarke (London 1671), p. 167.] 



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