A HISTORY OF HERTFORDSHIRE 



corner of the rectory, which lies on the western bank of the River Maran or Mimram, between 

 a croquet lawn and the house, 6| ft. from the former. The walls were 2 J ft. thick and were 

 wcU built with lime and mortar, the flints being laid in courses, but no tiles occurred in siiu. 

 A space measuring loj ft. by 4^ ft. was opened up, but revealed no trace of the floor. Many 

 brick and roofing tiles were turned up, only one hypocaust tile, a coarse dark urn, 8 in. 

 high, from just inside the angle, bits of thin bronze plate and wire, three brass coins of 

 Constantine I (a.d. 306-37), many oyster shells and animal bones, and some evidence of fire 

 was observed. When the lawn itself was being made in the autumn of 1906 no masonry 

 occurred, but a number of hard, round pebbles, bedded on chalk and burnt lime, and burnt 

 bright red, also a great quantity of Roman bricks and roofing tiles (all broken), numberless 

 pieces of pottery, including Samian, one bit stamped " secvndinaa " (sic — ? ma. Secundinus 

 is a Lezoux potter of the first half of the second century ; see Curie, Roman Frontier Post, 240), 

 and Castor ware, broken glass, handle of a blue-green vessel with a wavy line of blue glass 

 on it, a bead of the same colour ; in bronze, a piece of a brooch, a ring I in. in diameter, a signet 

 ring engraved with a winged female (? Victory), an ornamented pin 4 in. long, a bit of twisted 

 band (? bracelet) tweezers, an object like a jew's-harp, &c. ; a barbed iron arrow-head, many 

 nails and bits of iron, and over forty bronze coins including two Pius (a.d. 138-61), one 

 Faustina II (a.d. 161-80), one Tetricus (a.d. 268-73), one or two Carausius (a.d. 286-93), 

 three Constantine I (a.d. 306-37), eight illegible. There was also a rubbish pit, but it was 

 not cleared to the bottom.' [Mayes, Bedfordshire Express, 15 December 1906]. A 'second 

 brass' coin of Decentius (a.d. 351-3) was found in the rectory grounds in May 1901, and 

 later a ' third brass ' of Gratian [East Herts. Arch. Soc. Trans, i (3), 364; Antiq. Jan. 191 1, 

 pp. 7, 8]. (2) A denarius of Hadrian and a brass of Gratian were found in 1908 at Guessens 

 on the east bank of the River Mimram, just west of and opposite to the church. Numerous 

 fragments of pottery and a silver denarius of Titus (a.d. 79-81) have been found in the 

 churchyard [Antiq. loc. cit.], and during the recent alterations at Welwyn Church it was 

 discovered that Roman bricks were largely used in the west front and the foundations of 

 the tower [ibid. 9 «.]. These bricks may have come from the house at the rectory or from 

 a building at the Grange, where much pottery has been found on rising ground north of the 

 church (PI. ii, iii, v). In July 1908, in making a lawn at the back of the house, a number of 

 Roman tiles were found with a large quantity of flints and mortar, showing the action of fire, 

 and heavy metallic clinkers, perhaps indicating a pottery kiln. A hundred yards away, to the 

 north-east of the Grange, in a strip of meadow measuring 10 ft. by 35 ft., also at the back 

 of the Grange, and 150 yds. north of the church, a burial place was opened. It contained 

 the remains of over 150 vessels of Samian, Castor, Upchurch, so-called Salopian, and other 

 wares of the Romano-British period. Many of them were cinerary urns in grey, red and 

 white ware, varying in height from 7 in. to 1 1 in., and in many cases the calcined bones 

 were covered with Samian and other saucers, the burials being arranged 3 ft. or 4 ft. apart, 

 2 ft. to 3 ft. from the surface. Many of the vessels seem to have been damaged before 

 burial, and two of the Samian paterae were mended with rivets. The pottery is now in 

 Mr. Andrews' Museum, Hertford [R. T. Andrews in Antiq. Feb. 191 1, p. 53 ; Mayes, East Herts. 

 Arch. Soc. Trans, iv (i), 1 17-18]. Amongst the fragments of Samian ware was a complete 

 example of a type dredged from the Puddingpan Rock, 4 miles off Heme Bay. It agrees 

 in shnpe, colour and quality with Form 3 of that series. It bears the stamp maioris hitherto 

 confined to Forms 10, 11 and 13. It was apparently made at Lezoux in the 2nd century. 

 A Samian cup of lighter colour resembling others found at Bayford (Kent) ; a ' thumb-pot ' 

 with seven indentations of pale yellow ware with black slip 4J in. high ; a vase of hard buff 

 ware witli egg-shaped body 7J in. high ; another with white slip, 5 J in. high ; a pot of hard 

 reddish ware with broad vertical band on the Hp 4 in. high ; and an elegant carinated vase 

 with dark grey surface, 5 J in. high [Proc. Soc. Antiq. xxiv, 134. For account of Puddingpan 

 examples, ibid, xxi, 280; xxii, 403, where Genitor's Form should be 10, 11 and 12, not 9, 

 10 and II.] A little Samian pot ornamented with stags and trees was found in a gravel-pit 

 near the cemetery, and is now in the possession of Sir Alfred Scott-Gatty. Two urns were 

 found at Myrtle HaU, now the Hall, on the Danesbury estate in 1907, to the south-east of the 

 burial place [Antiq. Jan. 1911, p. 9]. (3) Samian, Upchurch and New Forest ware, three 

 coins, bracelets and brooches, some set with light blue stones, and an enamelled handle 

 {sic) were found in making a new road from Mill Lane to the Hertford road and the railway 

 station, just south of Welwyn [Antiq. Jan. 19x1, p. 7]. 



Coins of Pius (May 1903), Faustina wife of Constantius II (a.d. 337-61) (March 1904), 

 and Gratian (a.d. 375-83) (March 1904), also some of Trajan (a.d. 98-1 17) and Slarcus Aurelius 

 (a.d. 161-80), and other coins have been found in Welwyn and the neighbourhood, and lastly 

 the following burials : (i) In a meadow at the back of the Frythe, three-quarters of a rails 



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