A HISTORY OF BERKSHIRE 



a Roman urn was found in 1757 by Dr. John Collet buried in a tumulus [Phil. Trans, i. 

 109-114], but the ground here has been so much disturbed for procuring gravel that no 

 indication of ancient earthworks can now be traced. Further discoveries will have to 

 be made before the exact site of the Roman station of Spinae can be assigned. 



There is, however, undoubted evidence of a Roman settlement at Newbury within 

 a mile of Speen House. Near the Goods Station here was discovered in 1856 a Romano- 

 British cemetery. With about 100 skeletons was found a quantity of pottery, some 

 perfect specimens of which are now preserved in the local museum [Newbury Dist. Field 

 Club Trans, ii. 126]. Amongst these are fine bowls of Samian ware, an amphora, a black 

 cinerary urn, an unguentarium with a figure of ^Esculapius and a serpent [cf. Journ. Brit. 

 Arch. Assoc. xvi. 34 for description and illustration]. 



The existence of this cemetery clearly points to a considerable settlement in the 

 neighbourhood, and the use of so much Samian ware of a good quality suggests the afflu- 

 ence of the persons interred. Other Roman antiquities discovered in Newbury are a 

 vase containing ashes and two coins [Gent. Mag. 1827 i. 161, 162], a bronze steelyard found 

 in 1839 [Money, Hist, of Newbury, 12], and in 1876 a bronze steelyard weight with frag- 

 ments of pottery, antlers and animal remains found on the site of the New Municipal 

 Buildings [Newbury Dist. Field Club Trans, ii. 260]. Stukeley also mentions a gold 

 Carausius (A.D. 287-293) from Newbury [Surtees Soc. Family Memoirs of Rev. W . Stukeley, 

 ii. 6]. The remains of Roman roads are said to have been found in Shaw Crescent 

 and Northbrook Street [Hist, of Newbury (1839); Money, op. cit. 8]. 



STANCOMBE DOWNS. See Lambourn. 



STANFORD IN THE VALE. On Chinham Farm, in this parish, a hill known as ' Chinnon Town ' 

 or ' The City ' is popularly believed to be the site of a Roman settlement called Julianum 

 [Maine, A Berkshire Pillage, 5 ; Berks, Bucks and Oxon Arch. Journ. Jan. 1904, p. 124]. 

 There seems, however, to be no evidence that a place of this name ever existed in Britain 

 under the Roman dominion. Coins in great numbers, chiefly brass, have been picked 

 up here, and it is supposed that remains of pavements and foundations lie under the 

 surface. Perhaps there was here a villa. 



STAN MORE FARM. See East Ilsley. 



STOCKCROSS. Vase containing copper coins. No details given \Journ. Brit. Arch. Assoc. xvi. 

 71]. 



STREATLEY. The Ordnance Map (xxii. 14) marks the site of a Roman ford across the Thames 

 in this parish, and more than one writer on Roman roads in Berkshire has taken Streatley 

 as the point where the Icknield Street enters the county [Lysons, Magna Brit. i. pt. ii. 

 199; Hundred of Wanting, 51]. Hearne, in his 'Occasional Remarks' at the end of 

 his edition of Roper's Life of More (p. 247), tells of two Roman milestones which he saw 

 fixed ' a great many yards in the ground,' between Streatley and Aldworth, one of them 

 a mile from Streatley. They are also mentioned in Rowe More's Collections for Berk- 

 shire [Bibl. Topog. Brit. iv. 147], but according to Lysons no information as to their 

 situation could be obtained in the neighbourhood. A later writer states that one of these 

 stones was formerly in a field near Kiddington, about i mile west of Streatley, but 

 that the occupier of the farm removed it with a team of eight horses to a spot a quarter 

 of a mile off where it then remained [Hewett, Hist, and Antiq. of Hundred of Compton, 

 152]. 



In 1810 Sir Richard Colt-Hoare [Hist, of Wilts ii. 46-54] mentioned some remains 

 on Streatley Farm near the village, which he considered proved that the ground was 

 the site of a Roman station. They consisted of foundations of old buildings, earthen vessels, 

 many Roman coins, chiefly of the Constantines, and some skeletons. Mr. Akerman however 

 [Arch, xxxviii. 328], referring to Sir Richard Colt-Hoare's account of Streatley, says he 

 mistook a Saxon for a Roman cemetery. Since this time hundreds of coins, gold, silver 

 and brass, ranging from A.D. 276 to A.D. 383, are said to have been ploughed up in these 

 fields and also some silver coins of the triumvirate of Antony, Lepidus and Octavius, 

 B.C. 43 [Hundred of Compton, 105]. 



It is noteworthy besides that the Ordnance Map marks two other finds of Roman 

 remains in this parish, one, in the river, of pottery, the other, not far from the river and 

 south of the ford, of coins. 



SULHAMSTEAD BANNISTER. Fragments of Roman pottery, both hand made and wheel turned, 

 have been found lately in the kitchen garden at Oakfield Park. They were for the 

 most part the remains of cooking-pots, and as the site is only 3! miles from Sil- 



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