A HISTORY OF WARWICKSHIRE 



(1) Monks Kirby, six miles north of Rugby. Here Dugdale states 

 that foundations of old walls and Roman bricks (some of which he saw 

 himself) were dug up in his own time near the church. He mentions 

 also 'three or four heaps of earth in an adjoyning pasture' which he took 

 to be graves. John Morton, the historian of Northamptonshire, de- 

 scribes some burial urns found at Monks Kirby not long before 1712. 

 These urns were 



reposited on a causey of broad pebbles running east and west : one of the largest 

 of them had a Christ's Cross coarsely painted on the outside of it. They were 

 each of them placed with their mouths dipping to the East and covered with a piece 

 of slate. Within were ashes and calcined bones and a mixture of earth. [History of 

 Northamptonshire (London, 1712), p. 30.] 



Morton took these urns to be Roman and Christian, and the former is 

 probable enough, though the latter is out of the question. A similar 

 discovery or the same, misdescribed was made in 1716, when a dozen 

 Roman urns covered with Roman bricks were found in digging a vault 

 for the burial of Basil, fourth Earl of Denbigh. The three (or two) finds 

 taken together seem to suggest at least the possibility of a villa here. 1 

 The occurrence of the name Walton in the neighbourhood may or may 

 not increase the probability, for Walton and similar names, while they 

 sometimes refer to the existence of old walls, are sometimes due to quite 

 other origins. 



(2) Snowford Bridge. Here, about 500 yards north of the bridge 

 and near the east bank of the river Itchin, in Long Itchington parish, 

 Roman bricks and tiles and common pottery have been often noticed, and 

 are still to be found, though no account of the site has ever appeared in 

 print. A few other small objects recorded from this parish may perhaps 

 belong to this site. 2 



(3) Walton Hall. Here the grass field to the south of the house, 

 called the Town Field, has been supposed to contain traces of Roman 

 buildings. The Rev. G. Miller of Radway states that the late Sir 

 Charles Mordaunt told him of these remains, and the Rev. Osbert 

 Mordaunt states that Roman coins have been found there. The field 

 itself is somewhat uneven, as if something lay beneath, but there are at 

 present no surface signs of antiquities belonging to any special age. 



(4) Kenilworth. Here Roman tiles have been found in or near the 

 Chase woods, about a mile west of the castle. Some specimens have 

 been in the Warwick Museum since 1858, and two are in the Andover 

 Museum. A label attached to the latter states that the tiles seemed, so 

 far as traced, to belong to two walls, each about 30 or 40 feet long, 

 meeting at a right angle. A writer in the Journal of the British 



1 Dugdale, p. 74 ; Morton, p. 530 ; Stukeley, I tin. Curiosum, p. no, ed. 2 ; Nichols' Leicester- 

 ihire, ir. 1 26 note. The facts about the find of 1716 are not clear. Stukeley gives no place for it ; 

 Nichols gives ' the church of Newnham Paddox,' which might mean either the church of Monks Kirby 

 or a chapel at Newnham Paddox, the seat of the Earls of Denbigh. No one seems to know where the 

 fourth Earl of Denbigh actually was buried. 



* Tiles in Warwick Museum ; tiles and potsherds found by Mr. H. Fowler and by myself ; inform- 

 ation from the farmer of the site, Mr. Abell of New Fields Farm. For the other objects, see Warwick 

 Nat. Hist, and Arcbatl. FieU Club, 1878 ; Warwick Archaol. Society's Reports, 1866, p. 23 ; 1878, p. 7. 



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