CELTIC AND ROMANO-BRITISH HERTFORDSHIRE 



was Hitchin and not St. Albans, as other writers assert]. Roman fibulae and British coins hav# 

 been found near the Cow Roast Inn at the bottom of Northcott Hill, and are marked on the 

 6-m. O.S. Map, sheet no. xxv, S.E., eastof the canal and a quarterof a mile eastof the Cow Roast 

 Inn in this parish, and therefore probably near the helmet [Arch, liii, 262, s.v. Wigginton]. 

 See also Wigginton and Aldbury for the coins on Moneybury Hill, 2 miles north. 



Norton.— A silver coin of Faustina II, Cohen type 190 (a.d. 161-80), was found on the earth- 

 work at Wilbury Hill, and near the same place human bones and three coins of Constantius 

 (a.d. 305-6) in 1806, while ' a great variety of coins of the Roman emperors have turned 

 up ... of late years in the adjacent lands ' [Clutterbuck, as below]. According to another 

 authority, coins from JuHus to Constans (a.d. 337-50) still occur here [Salmon, Hist, of 

 Herts. (1728), 160, hence Brayleyand Biinon, Beauties of Engl. andWales,vn, 176; and Camden, 

 Brit. (ed. Gough, 1789), i, 342 ; Reynolds, Itin. Antonini (1799), 472 ; Clutterbuck, Hist, of 

 Herts. (1827), iii, 13 n., hence Cussans, Hist, of Herts. Odsey Hund. (1873), 74]. A small Roman 

 bronze figure 3 in. high was found close to Wilbury Hill at the intersection of Icknield Way 

 and a road that runs south-east [Cussans, op. cit. Hitchin Hund. (1874), S]- Roman inter- 

 ments have been found half a mile west of Wilbury Hill [^Arch. liii, 257, s.v. Hitchin]. For 

 an account of the earthwork, see East Herts. Arch. Soc. ii (3), 279 ; F.C.H. Herts, ii, 1 1 1 ; 

 and the Late Celtic Cemetery, ibid, i, 236. See also Hitchin, WilUan and Letchworth. 



Penlowe Park. — ' Much Samian ware, urns, &c.,' were dug up in ' Penlowe Park, Herts.,' June 

 1845, and are described by Mr. Inskip of Sheflord (co. Beds.). ' Penlowe Park' is perhaps a 

 mistake for Henlow Park, between Shefford and Astwick, Bedfordshire, or Pendley Park in 

 Tring parish. The Samian included a ' vase ' ' of diminutive size ' (perhaps Drag, shape 67), 

 decorated with medallions (stags browsing), and two dishes, one with graffiti scratched on 

 the bottom IJourn. Brit. Arch. Assoc. (1845), i, 340]. 



PiRTON. — (i) A large number of burials were found in 1835 close to the surface in a field called 

 Dane's Shot on Pirton Hill, half a mile from Icknield Street. Some thirty skeletons lay in 

 two rows, one of which was carefully arranged, the skeletons lying i^ yds. apart, with heads 

 to the north-east, the other carelessly, three or four being thrown into one grave. With 

 them were many ' dull black ' urns of moderate size containing bones, and also a ' curiously 

 ornamented' brass armlet, some buckles and twisted pins. \_Gent. Mag. (1835), i, 305; 

 Cussans, Hist, of Herts. Hitchin Hund. 15, quoting CoMW/y Press, 14 February 1835]. Ransom 

 [Herts. Nat. Hist. Soc. Trans. (1886), iv, 40] adds that forty-five years previously a large number 

 of skeletons, and also those of horses with several fragments of iron and bronze, were found 

 here, which he concludes were post-Roman burials. But if he refers to the same find the 

 contemporary accounts do not mention horses, and the burials as described in them might 

 as well be Roman as Saxon. Mr. Ransom also records an amphora, 3 ft. high, dug out at a 

 short distance, and ' a variety of other vessels have since been found there.' (2) We may 

 also include here another cemetery in the adjoining parish of Pegsdown in the county of 

 Bedford. It lay at the foot of the chalk downs on Pegsdown Common, half a mile from 

 Icknield Street and about four miles from Hitchin. It was opened in 1 879 by Mr. Ransom 

 and found to contain ' a considerable number of broken urns of brown pottery ' with cremated 

 human bones in some of them, and several pieces of Samian. Beneath them an earlier 

 cemetery was revealed, containing ruder and hand-made urns, -| in. thick, with human 

 ashes mixed with charcoal and iron nails in them. [Ransom, Herts. Nat. Hist. Soc. Trans. 

 (1886), iv, 39]. See also Hitchin, Ickleford and Norton. 



Radlett. — Two kilns were found in the autumn of 1898 on the property of Sir Walter Phillimore 

 in a sand-pit on the east side of Loom Lane in this parish. The first was much destroyed 

 before its nature or date was realized, but it was circular, about 3 ft. in diameter, with 

 walls about 5 in. thick, made of baked clay with bits of brick irregularly inserted. The 

 floor of the flue, about 2 ft. below the original ground level, consisted of the natural sand 

 burnt red for an inch or more. A projection was traced, extending from the wall of the 

 kiln to the middle of the flue, where it formed a pedestal 9 in. high to support the kiln floor, 

 of which nothing remained. 



The second kiln, lying 10 ft. south-east, was also excavated and planned. The remains 

 lay 3 J ft. below the present surface; it was of horseshoe shape, its greatest length being 

 6 ft. and width 5 ft. I in. measured internally. It had been made by digging a hole 4 ft. deep 

 in the sand, against which had been built a wall 6 in. thick of brickbats set in clay, and 

 afterwards baked. It was heated from a furnace 3 ft. 9 in. long and i ft. 7 in. wide, con- 

 nected with a flue which ran all round the kiln, and was constructed by filling in the centre 

 of the kiln with a block or pedestal of masonry, i ft. gin. high, which also served to support 

 the oven floor, about 7 in. thick, made of cHnkers and burnt clay covered with a layer of sand. 

 The flue was covered by a flat arch. The kiln, when deserted, was evidently full of pots, 



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