A HISTORY OF HERTFORDSHIRE 



Stavdov. - A tessellated pavement 12 ft. 9 in. square, with a plain square design in black, white 

 and red, was found in 1756 at Thundridge. This is described in 1827 as lying near to tuo 

 barrows in a field called Hilly Field at Haven End. These lie just outside and east of 

 the shrubbery of Youngsbury in Standon parish, on a hill above the River Rib, on the 

 opposite and southern bank of which stands Thundridge Church, and about half a mile east 

 of Ermine Street. The same authority adds that ' no part of this pavement is now visible, 

 yet many of the tesserae of which it was composed may still be picked up in the shrubbery 

 at Youngsbury, where it was situated ; and within the last fifty years there were in existence 

 parts of it which had not been disturbed, and were apparently perfect.' Nothing of the 

 villa now remains above ground. Part of the villa site was excavated about 1 890 by the late 

 Mr. Charles Giles Puller, and foundations of walls and a circular pit were found, together 

 with a bone pin and many tesserae. In 1905 a rubbish pit containing charcoal, animal bones 

 and potsherds was found by Mr. F. C. Puller about 70 yds. south-west of the villa site [Inform, 

 from Mr. F. C. Puller]. The more eastern of the barrows was opened about 1788 and was 

 said to contain spear-heads, coins and pottery thought to be Roman. The other was excavated 

 in June 1889 by Sir John Evans. It was about 12 ft. high, with a diameter of about 60 ft., 

 and was constructed with layers of local gravelly subsoil mixed in places with a heavier clay 

 soil. At the bottom of it a ca^^ty 3 J ft. long and 3 ft. wide was found about 8 ft. below the 

 apex of the mound; it was roofed \Wth hard and stiff clay soil, and had evidently contained 

 a wood cist 3 ft. long and I ft. i\\ in. wide, with a hd attached by four rough hinges. 

 In this had been deposited a well-burnt grey urn 17 J in. high, 8 J in. in diameter at the 

 mouth with a rim nearly i in. deep [somewhat resembling plate xlix(a), fig. 5, of Curie, 

 A Roman /Vox/jVrPo.f/ (191 2)], ornamented with transverse markings round the body and curved 

 hnes round the neck, .TnJ containing much charcoal and calcined bones and nearly 200 nails ; a 

 sm;ill, wide jug-shaped vessel of light-coloured ware, 6i in. high ; a Lnrge square glass bottle 

 15 in. high, with a thick lip and fiat reeded handle, stamped on the bottom with a kind of 

 star pattern in the centre and the segment of a circle in each corner (the same as that on 

 the Harpenden bottle), and nearly full of burnt bones and a little resinous matter, probably 

 incense ; some large iron nails, probably part of the wood chest. Some bones of a roe-deer 

 were found mixed with some of the human bones. Sir John Evans dated the burial to the 

 latter half of the 2nd century. [MS. note in a copy of Chauncy, Hist, of Herts. (1700), 213, 

 once the property of Mr. George North, vicar of Codicote, and now in the Bodleian Library 

 (Gough, Herts. 19), hence Clutterbuck, Hist, of Herts. (1827), iii, 277, but misquoting the date 

 of the find, and hence Cussans, Hist, of Herts. Braughing Hund. (1870), 1645 Arch, hi, 287, 

 plate vi for the barrows. Braughing hes about 5 miles north-east]. 



SiANSTEAD Abbots. — The site of the villa mentioned in Arch, liii, 261, as found here is really 

 in the parish of Stansted Mf)untfitchet, Esex, on the eastern bank of the River Lea and 

 about 12 miles north-east of Stanstcad .Abbots. Roman bricks are said to occur in the tower 

 and the north wall of the nave of Stanstead Abbots Church, where they arc placed in herring- 

 bone f.ishion, and Rf)m,in pottery in the churchyard [.MS. note in a copy of Salmon's Hist, 

 of Herts. 250, now in the Bodlci.in Library (Gough, Herts. 18) ; East Herts. Arch. Soc. Trans. 

 ii (i), 2^]. Roman remains have been found in the neighbourhood at Ware, Hoddesdon 

 and Amwell (q.v.). 



Therfield. — Gough mentions a ' Roman camp, a quarter of a mile from Royston, on the road 

 to Baldock,' of which a drawing was shown to the Society of Antiquaries in 1744. Cussans 

 also states that ' from the number of coins and other remains found ' in a valley west of the road 

 joining Therfield and the Baldock Road, it ' seems to have been the site of a Roman camp, 

 but all traces, if such existed, have been destroyed by the plough.' Stukeley also mentions 

 earthworks here, but gives no reason why they should be considered Roman. Cussans refers 

 to a barrow being opened near the 'Thrift' in 1833, which was said to contain Roman 

 pottery, but that may possibly be the barrow at Limloe Hill, Cambridgeshire, which was 

 excavated that year. Other barrows on Royston Heath have been cut through, but their 

 contents do not seem to be of Roman date, except perhaps one which seems to have stood 

 not far from the ' Thrift.' It was removed in March 1852, and there was found in the centre 

 of it a grave 5J ft. long and z\ ft. deep, containing a skeleton, small bits of flint and chalk, 

 bits of glass and a ' Roman buckle.' [Camden's Brit. (ed. Gough, 1789), i, 341 ; Cussans, 

 Hist, of Herts. Odsey Hund. (iSj^), 98, 116; Journ. Brit. Arch. Assoc. (1853), viii, 371; 

 Proc. Soc. Antiq. (ser. 2), i, 306.] See Royston and KelshaU. 



Thundridge. — See Standon. 



Top Street. — See Harpenden. 



Tring. — A cemetery was found in making the L. & N.W.R. line ' where it crosses Icknield Street,' 

 presumably at Folly Bridge, ij miles north of Tring and on the Buckinghamshire border. 



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