ROMANO-BRITISH WARWICKSHIRE 



(5) An alleged ' camp ' at Selly Oak (now indistinguishable) and an alleged well near 

 Harborne seem to lack proof of Roman origin. 



These finds show that Birmingham was not in any real sense an inhabited site in the 

 Roman period. Wm. Baxter [Glossarium Antiq. Britann. (London, 1719), p. 46], gave 

 the spot the name Bremenium, just as a guess, and the idea was picked up by Bertram 

 in forging ' Richard of Cirencester.' It has of course no validity and is totally unworthy 

 of credence : Bremenium itself was in Northumberland. For the line of Rycknield 

 Street across Birmingham see p. 240. 



BLACKLOW HILL. Lord Algernon Percy of Guy's Cliffe has four coins (silver of Antony, 

 Pius, Commodus, bronze of Nero) which were found in a drawer, wrapped in a paper 

 marked ' Coins dug up at Blacklow Hill.' Other coins are believed to have been found 

 with them but are lost and the date of the find is unknown. Blacklow Hill (in Leek 

 Wootton parish) is close to Guy's Cliffe and Gaveston's Cross. [Unpublished.] 



BRAILES. Potsherds [R. F. Tomes]. 



BRINKLOW. N. Salmon [New Survey (1731), p. 492] put Ratae here, but it is ;in impossible 

 idea. The earthworks here are certainly not Roman, as all will agree who have seen 

 them. The question whether the Fosse deviates to avoid them [Archaological "Journal, 

 xxxv. 114, etc.] can only be settled by excavation, but they seem to me to be planted 

 across it [Dugdale, 218; W. G. Fretton, ' Staunton Folio,' Birmingham and Midland 

 Institute, 1883, p. 35, plan of 1821 ; Archaeological Journal, xxxv. 113, xxxviii. 435 

 (horseshoes, miscalled Roman) ; Builder, June 12, 1884 ; Journal of the British Archaeo- 

 logical Association, xx ix. 40]. 



BROWNSOVER. Roman cinerary urn in chapel yard, recorded by Bloxam [Rugby, the School and 

 Neighbourhood (London, 1889), p. 195 ; and Rugby School Nat. Hist. Sac. Trans. 1884]. 

 The ' camp ' here has no claim to be considered Roman. 



BUBBENHALL. Seven inscribed tiles found 1877 in demolishing a building supposed to be 200 

 years old. The inscriptions are identical and are a reproduction of the inscription found 

 about the year 1600 at Bremenium (High Rochester), [Corpus Inscriptionum Latin, vii. 

 986]. The texture of the tiles, the forms of the letters and a mistake in the lettering 

 prove these tiles to be modern productions ; and comparison shows that they were 

 actually stamped with the block (or a duplicate of the block) used by Camden [Britannia 

 (1607), ed. 4] to illustrate the High Rochester altar. One tile was given to Trinity 

 College, Cambridge, one to Warwick Museum, where I have seen them [Notes and 

 Queries, fifth series, vii. (1877), pt. 2, pp. 28, 74, 133, 195, 436 ; Archteological Journal, 

 xxxiii. 452]. Sir John Evans (in Notes and Queries) first suggested the original of the 

 tiles, and Mr. S. M. Leathes, Fellow of Trinity College, confirmed this by comparing 

 the tile in Trinity College Library with the illustration in Camden. I imagine that the 

 tiles were fabricated early in the seventeenth century and more probably as a jeu d 'esprit 

 than as a forgery. 



BUTLERS MARSTON. Coins are said to have been found in the parish. There is a farm 

 called Blacklands, but I am assured that nothing has ever been detected on it. See 

 Combrook. 



CAVE'S INN. Hamlet on Wading Street : p. 230. 



CESTERSOVER. Various assertions have been made that this is a Roman site, but it is probably 

 only a Saxon one. Stukeley [Itin. Curiosum, i. 112] mentions foundations, etc., at Old 

 Town, though without calling them Roman ; M. H. Bloxam in one of his earlier 

 papers [Birmingham Analyst, 1836, iv. 179] speaks of Roman pavements and burials. 

 But these, as he later saw, are Saxon [C. Roach Smith, Collectanea Antiqua, i. 38 ; 

 Bloxam, Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries, viii. 322, ser. 2 ; Archceologia, xlviii. 337]. 

 The late J. T. Burgess stated that Roman pavements and late Roman remains were 

 found during the construction of the Midland Railway from Leicester to Rugby in 

 1839 [Journal of the British Archaeological Association, 1873, xxix. 40]. But I can get 

 no confirmation of the statement though I have made local enquiries. The derivation 

 of the name is doubtful. Mr. W. H. Stevenson tells me that Dugdale's ' the eastern 

 over ' is wrong, and that a derivation from ' ceaster ' is unlikely. 



CHESTERTON. Village (?) : see p. 234. 



CLIFTON-ON-DUNSMORE. Skeletons, beads, a jewel mounted in gold and a bronze bowl- 

 handle, found in 1843, nave Deen called Roman [M. H. Bloxam, Associated Architectural 

 Society Papers, i. 229]. But the jewel was pronounced Saxon by Sir A. W. Franks and 

 probably the whole find is Saxon. Mr. Goodacre of Ullesthorp has some of the things. 



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