A HISTORY OF HERTFORDSHIRE 



Silchester, appear to have contained beams which supported the timber 

 framework of double doors. The corresponding wall on the north-west 

 side has no channels, and sags 5 in. in the middle. The colonnades on the 

 south-east and possibly the north-west sides were repaired and remained 

 much as they were, but the north-western of the two colonnades in the 

 south-west wall was apparently taken down and a rubble wall built up in 

 its place, but the evidences at this spot are so complicated that it is difficult 

 to state exactly what was then done. It would seem that the south- 

 eastern colonnade in this wall remained. From the slight excavations on 

 the site of the north-eastern corridor it appears that there are here also 

 similar evidences of fire and alterations. 



Among the objects found in the course of the excavation were several 

 pieces of Purbeck marble, some with mouldings and some with a few letters 

 of inscriptions probably of an early type, and one piece of white marble. 

 All these fragments seem to have belonged to the original building of the 

 forum. There was the usual accumulation of potsherds and coins varying 

 from the ist century to the end of the Roman occupation and five British 

 imitations of Roman coins, probably of the 5th century, two of which 

 might be even of the 6th century." The evidence of the masonry, 

 particularly that of the chamber with the supposed barrel vault, the 

 fine tessellated pavement in the same chamber and the type of lettering 

 on the fragments of the inscriptions, points to the original building 

 of the forum being of an early date, probably of the latter part of the 

 I St century a.d. 



On the north-east side of the forum portions of the foundations of a 

 large building which apparently ran the full length of the forum (373 ft.) 

 have from time to time been found when digging graves in the churchyard. 

 A length of about 10 ft. of the north-west wall of this building was lately 

 uncovered by the Rev. C. V. Bicknell at a depth' of 8 ft. or 9 ft. from the 

 surface in the north-west corner of the vicarage garden, which slightly 

 projects into the churchyard. Here was found a carefully laid wall with a 

 smooth surface 4 ft. 6 in. wide which may have been a sleeper wall for a 

 colonnade or a bed for stones. There was apparently a return wall at the 

 south-west end going south-eastwards, but owing to the roots of trees it 

 could not be examined. On the south-east side were the foundations for a 

 pavement. The immense amount of Roman building rubbish above the 

 foundations indicates a big masonry building, and a layer of charcoal running 

 through the fallen debris points to a fire after the building was wholly or 

 partially a ruin. When St. Michael's churchyard was being made tidy 

 after the rebuilding of the west end of the church in 1897 excavations were 

 made by the Rev. C. V. Bicknell and the writer in the pathways of the 

 churchyard, and 8 ft. from the surface three lines of wall 4 ft. 6 in. to 5 ft. 

 thick parallel to the walls of the forum were found which ran under the 

 church. The middle wall passed diagonally under the north-west corner 

 of the new tower of the church. The wall on the south was about 23 ft. 

 distant from it and that on the north about 28 ft. Five drums of circular 

 columns of Oolite stone were found detached on the top of the middle wall 



"= All the coins were identified by Mr. H. A. Grueber, F.S.A., of the British Museum, and lists of 

 them will be found in the Reports on the excavations in the S/. Albani Arch. Soc. Tram. 1 899-1 902. 



