A HISTORY OF BERKSHIRE 



the top and V-shaped, seemed to represent foundations of wattle and daub or mud walls 

 surrounding enclosures. Some of these enclosures were circular, varying from 24 feet 

 to 45 feet in diameter, some rectangular or rhomboidal and at least as large as the circular, 

 possibly indicating the lines of roads or field walls and often intersecting each other. 

 There were no remains of stone or brick walls, but some pieces of wattle and daub, a piece 

 of wall lining with rude coloured marks, stone slates and broken tiles found showed the 

 nature of the buildings. The pottery was Late Celtic and local Romano-British, with a 

 few pieces of Samian, one the bottom of a large bowl stamped inside AVITVS. F. No 

 coins were found here but six were picked up near Mr. Hewett's house, one of Allectus 

 (293-296), one of Constantine II (317-340), the rest illegible. Human and animal bones 

 were found, stone slates and pins, and pot-boilers. There was no trace of any but mud 

 or wattle and daub walls and nothing to indicate even such a comparatively well-to-do 

 population as that of Frilford. 



Dr. Haverfield describes the enclosures in detail, and it will be best to give the account 

 in his own words. He begins with the discoveries in the field called Scabbs. ' This field 

 is thickly covered with enclosures which intersect and cross in a very puzzling manner. 

 Nine circles can be distinguished ; the diameters of the two smallest are 24 and 38 feet, 

 of the four largest 73, 98, 109, and 145 feet. The smallest was dug out completely by 

 Mr. Hewett. On the floor of it were an ichthyosaurus bone and a flint saw, neither 

 probably to be reckoned Romano-British objects ; underneath the floor was a female 

 skeleton and a flint knife. The next smallest was not excavated at all but traced by the 

 crops above ; it was thought to intersect with another circle of nearly the same size. The 

 largest circle, the only other one of which I have details, seems to have had in the centre 

 a pit or trench running across it ; this was full of black vegetable mould on which gravel 

 had been thrown. Three wells were found in this field. One (No. vii. on the plan) was 

 steyned at the bottom with a hollow oak log and had rude steps, but contained no small 

 objects. Another (No. vi.) was steyned with stone ; at the bottom was an arrow-head 

 and bones, described to me as human, and above, a leather object which resembles a 

 damaged cuirass, and some bits of Romano-British pottery and some pieces of wattle 

 and daub work. A third well (No. v.) was steyned with wicker work. The rest of the 

 field is occupied by more or less rectangular enclosures, floored with a gravel layer some 

 6 or 8 inches thick. What was taken to be a road, 12 to 14 feet wide, runs across some 

 of these enclosures, and Mr. Hewett thought to detect marks of wheels on its gravel 

 metalling. Wall plaster and stone roof-slates were found in some plenty in this field. 

 I turn to Fox Furlong on the south side of Scabbs. Here only one circle was noted 

 intersecting two rectangles ; it is 104 feet in diameter, and has not been dug out. There 

 are also two apse-shaped trenches, one of which contains a pit with ashes, and above them 

 a rude layer of local stone. The rectangular enclosures are more interesting. The 

 largest is 100 by 175 feet ; under its west side is a hole containing the deposit of lime 

 to which I have already referred, a hole 10 feet long by 6 feet wide, with the mud line of 

 the wall running across it and the lime on each side. Within the enclosure is a well, 

 which yielded broken pottery, and is steyned with wood. In a corner is a pit (whether 

 the wall of the enclosure or not I do not know) which contained two burial urns and 

 part of a third, with charred bones, 3^ feet below the surface. The entrance to this 

 enclosure was apparently near the middle of the east side. Another smaller enclosure 

 measures 90 by 118 feet, and has an entrance at the north-west corner. Just outside 

 that in a rubbish pit were found human and animal bones, flint flakes, and pot-boilers, 

 all in confusion. Inside was Well No. i, 8 feet deep, steyned with wood at the bottom 

 and local stone above, and with what Mr. Hewett considered steps leading down to it. 

 Out of it, and all of them at the bottom, came five nearly perfect Late-Celtic urns, the 

 largest full of sand, and higher up a Samian fragment with a potter's mark, already noted, 

 and fragments of other Romano-British pottery. This well is close to the outside of the 

 circular enclosure just mentioned which intersects the rectangle, and the steps seem to 

 lead down to the well from that and not from the rectangle. This circle also cuts another 

 semi-rectangular enclosure which also has a steyned well (No. il) in it.' 



From time to time Mr. Hewett reported the results of his excavations in the Berks, 

 Sucks and Oxon Archtsological Journal [Jan. 1895, Jan. 1899, April 1902]. Traces of 

 buildings extended continuously on the Northfield Farm alone for more than 250 acres. 

 Romano-British foundations were found also at his farm at Willington, Long Witten- 

 ham, and fragments of Romano-British pottery, some of a rare kind, were picked up in 



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