A HISTORY OF BERKSHIRE 



together such traces of Roman occupation as have been found in both places. Chief of 

 these is the villa on Castle Hill to which attention was first drawn by the number of 

 flanged roof-tiles seen on the spot. Excavations were in consequence begun in October 

 1886 under the direction of Mr. Rutland, F.G.S., who communicated the results to the 

 Maidenhead and Taplow Field Club in a paper read in October 1891 [Maidenhead 

 and la-plow Field, Club, etc. Rep. (1890-1) 50-2]. 



Fragments of Romano-British pottery were first discovered. A furnace surrounded 

 by walls, 2\ feet deep, if feet wide and 10 feet long, of the usual Roman brick, was laid 

 bare, and masses of foundations of flints and chalk stones, embedded in a very hard mortar, 

 composed of chalk lime, sand, and pounded brick. On each side of the furnace, which 

 was not paved or plastered, was a row of rough conglomerate gravel boulders. Near 

 its mouth two coins of Tetricus, the elder and the younger (A.D. 267-273) and two pieces 

 of Samian ware were found. There was a bronze pin in the ashes near it and much ordinary 

 pottery, black, brown, grey and stone-coloured. Other foundations were found in this 

 part of the building, one of which was probably the foundation layer of concrete for 

 floors of tesserae. As the work proceeded a hypocaust with its pilae was discovered, and a 

 kitchen midden. There were more fragments of Samian, animal bones, pieces of about 

 sixty common vessels, square flue-tiles, roofing tiles used as bonding-tiles, and bits of wall 

 plaster with traces of mural decoration. Twenty-seven pilae were found in situ and supported 

 the square tiles on which was laid the thick bed of concrete forming the foundation for 

 the tessellated floor above. Perhaps the most interesting discovery was that of the bath 

 with a lead pipe for emptying it. Its floor was of concrete and brick, and finished on the 

 inside with fine tesserae. Unfortunately the plough had obliterated all traces of floors and 

 doorways in the other rooms and the north-west angle of the building had been destroyed 

 by excavations for gravel. It was supposed that the villa, which must have been of con- 

 siderable size, had been explored before, as some of the pilae of the hypocaust and a large 

 portion of the outer wall had been removed. 



A Roman quern was picked up on the site, and opposite the villa a coin of Constantine, 

 a bead of Kimmeridge clay, two nails and an iron loop were found. 



In ' Maidenhead Thicket,' two miles west of the town, are some pits and a circular 

 entrenchment supposed to be British. Not far off, on the opposite side of the so-called 

 ' Thicket ' there are two other earthworks, both quadrangular, one of which, called 

 ' Robin Hood's Arbour,' is 235 feet square with an entrance in the north side. It is supposed 

 that both of these are Roman [Berks, Bucks and Oxon Arch. Journ. Oct. 1901, p. 95]. 



Roman coins and fragments of armour and weapons are said to have been ploughed up 

 at different times before the close of the eighteenth century, in the Easthay, a common 

 field to the east of Bray [Gent. Mag. 1795, ii. 629, 630]. About the same time, too, a 

 short piece of a Roman highway is also said to have been discovered between the river 

 and the east corner of the churchyard [Ibid]. There are also said to be traces of a Roman 

 road from Braywick to the tumulus at Cockmarsh in the parish of Cookham [Kerry, 

 Hist, and Antiq. of Hundred of Bray, 150-3], and a few Roman coins, two of Antonine, 

 have been found on its site. A broad ridge, 300 yards in length, to the south of Bray- 

 wick, was supposed to show the line of this road in the opposite direction, a belief sup- 

 ported by the discovery close by of a fine Roman urn containing charred bones and 

 ashes. 



Numerous Roman coins, ranging from Vespasian to Arcadius (A.D. 70-408), have 

 been found in Arbour Field and Down Place, Bray [Ibid.]. In 1837 two urns of rude 

 workmanship were found about a mile east of Maidenhead Bridge on the Great Western 

 Railway [Numismatic Journ. ii. 194]. They contained from four to five hundred coins 

 of Roman emperors and empresses from Othotothe Antonines (A.D. 69-180). Camden 

 and some other early antiquaries identified Bray with the Bibracte of the wholly untrust- 

 worthy Richard of Cirencester. It may be noticed, however, in connexion with this 

 question that the only Bibracte of which we have any certain knowledge was a town in 

 Gaul which is described by Caesar. No mention of a Bibracte in Britain occurs in the 

 Roman general's account of his invasion, and the solitary reference in Richard of Ciren- 

 cester is our only authority for the existence of this place. 



BRIGHTWELL. Samian and other Roman pottery found in a gravel pit about 500 yards north 

 of Lower Hill Farm [Berks, Bucks and Oxon Arch. Journ. July 1898, p. 44]. Small brass 

 coins from Tetricus to Allectus (A.D. 267-94) turned up in the garden of Slade End Farm 

 [Ibid.]. A denarius of Geta (A.D. 209-12) from the village [Quart. Journ. Berks Arch. 



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