CELTIC AND ROMANO-BRITISH HERTFORDSHIRE 



Sixteen skeletons had been buried by the side of the road and with them was ' an immense 

 quantity of Roman pottery and oyster shells.' Much of the pottery was broken when 

 found, but there were several perfect cinerary urns, two being in the possession of the Society 

 of Antiquaries in 1879. [Cussans, Hist, of Herts. Dacorum Hund. (1879), 'S-] ^°^ °ther 

 finds near here see Aldbury, Northchurch and Wigginton. 



Verulam, see p. 125. 



Walden, St. Paul's. — Roman coins have been found at Whitwell, south-west of Walden[^r(r^. 

 hii, 262]. 



Walsworth. — See Hitchin. For the find of Late Celtic urns in a chalk-pit half a mile from 

 Icknield Way and i\ miles from Wilbury Hill, and probably in this parish, see Norton and 

 V.C.H. Herts, i, 236. 



Ware. — ^Two burials were discovered in building a new lock on the River Lea in Priory Street, 

 400 yds. north-west of the Priory, August 1831. They lay in a stratum of peat, 50 yds. 

 from the left bank of the ancient river course, and must have been at the side of Ermine 

 Street. The first was found lying east and west at a depth of 3 ft. ; 9 in. below the skull part 

 of a steelyard turned up, the weight and a brass coin of Domitian (a.d. 81-96) being 9 in. below 

 it again (i.e. 4J ft. deep). Near it also were ' a brass candlestick of curious workmanship,' an 

 iron axe-head and a finger-ring. The second skeleton was a little to the south, also in the 

 peat, and near it were a pin, a key, two millstones of Hertfordshire concreted gravel, fragments 

 of a large earthen vessel with a base and rim 33 in. circumference, and a brass coin of Didius 

 Severus (a.d. 193), Cohen, no. 17-19. {Arch, xxiv, 350, hence Cussans, Hist, of Herts. 

 Braughing Hund. (1870), 155 ; Gent. Mag. (1831), ii, 454]. Four stone coffins were discovered 

 in a field called Bury Field, just to the north of the above, in February 1802. No small objects 

 are recorded, and from their shape they may equally well belong to a post-Roman as to the 

 Roman period, and Ware Priory hes quite close. A small copper coin of Constantine I (a.d. 

 306-37) occurred ' in the mould ' (i.e. the soil) near them, however ; and in 1899 finds of Roman 

 pottery and coins were made in the site of Messrs. Allen & Hanbury's factory in the same 

 field, and probably indicate a burial-place along the side of Ermine Street. Among the 

 vessels were part of a large Samian patera, about 10 in. in diameter, stamped ' constans f,' 

 other fragments of Samian, pieces of Castor ware, a colander in grey ware 4I in. diameter at 

 the bottom, pieces of white and fine black ware and rough grey ware, including two urns 14 in. 

 and 8 in. high and 6 in. and 3jin. in diameter at the mouth respectively, which may possibly 

 not be Roman. The coins were a ' second brass' of Vespasian (Cos. iii) (a.d. 69-79), another 

 of Commodus (a.d. 180-93), a ' third brass ' of Constantine I (a.d. 305-6) in poor condition, and 

 two others illegible. A small bronze spear-head also appears to have been turned up at the 

 same time. A skeleton, ring, Roman key, steelyard and coins of Domitian and Severus were 

 found also in 1830 near the same field [MS. Min. Soc. Antiq. xxxvi, 151 ; Gent. Mag. (1802), 

 i, 393, plate i, and 6-in. O.S. Map, xxix, S.E.]. A house or village may have existed some- 

 where near the bridge or ford across the river [Andrews, East Herts. Arch. Soc. Trans, i 

 (2), 187-90]. A section of Ermine Street was opened in Barrowfield on the golf links at 

 Chadwell, but for that see Roads, p. 145. 

 Watford. — Cussans mentions a ' Roman interment ' from a barrow which was levelled about 

 i860 in digging for gravel beneath it. It stood south-west of Munden House, on the banks 

 of the River Colne. Some ' Roman tiles which probably surrounded the interment ' were 

 in his day at Munden House, and he knew of a tradition of ' several gold things and copper 

 coins and a lot of pickle jars with burnt bones in them.' [Cussans, Hist, of Herts. Cashio 

 Hund. (1881), 181]. Boyden's Hill hes about 2 miles to the south-east, where riles have been 

 found (see Aldenham), and the Radlett kilns about l| miles east. 



Watton at Stone. — Roman coins were found here in the i8th century, according to a MS. 

 letter from the Rev. Geo. North, vicar of Codicote, to Ducarel, 4 November 1742 [now in a 

 copy of Salmon, Hist, of Herts. 147, in the Bodleian (Gough, Herts. 18)]. He also mentions 

 the so-called Roman milestone, ' a large weather-beaten stone with all the signs of a great 

 age,' at the parting of the Stevenage and Walkern Roads. In Cussans' day it supported a 

 horse-trough outside the Wagon and Horses Inn, near the River Beane, but it may as well 

 be prehistoric as of Roman date. It is said to have given its name to the parish. [From 

 North but misquoting the reference, Clutterbuck, Hist, of Herts. (1829), ii, 472 ; Cussans, 

 Hist, of Herts. Broadwater Hund. (1877), 167]. 



Welwyn.— Welwyn was the burial-place of some family of importance in the latter part of the 

 1st century b.c. Two vaults and two separate burials were discovered in the autumn of 

 1906 during the diversion of the station road by the late Mr. G. E. Dering of Lockleys. The 

 actual site of the graves was in the new road, some 500 ft. to the east of the London Road. 

 The objects, several of which must have been of a costly nature for the period to which they 



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