CELTIC AND ROMANO-BRITISH HERTFORDSHIRE 



south-west of the rectory, five urns very imperfectly burnt, 8 in. diameter, containing ashes, 

 and a small bent bronze plate about 1886; (2) an amphora without handles, 2 ft. 4 in. high 

 and 11 1 in. diameter, full of brown dust, and apparently another was found in October 1904 

 in a gravel-pit in the Mardleybury grounds north of the Great Northern tunnel, nearly two 

 miles north-east, now in the Hertford Museum ; a third has since been found [Antiq. loc. cit. ; 

 Rev. A. C. Headlam, Herts. Mercury, 13 May 1905 ; East Herts. Arch. Soc. Trans, iii(i), 32]; 

 (3) two urns containing bones and a bronze fibula from the side of a chalk-pit at Welwyn 

 were shown to the Society of Antiquaries on 8 August 1742 [MS. Min. Soc. Antiq. 8 Aug. 

 1742]. At Harmer Green, about ij miles from Welwyn, some foundations of uncertain 

 date, possibly Roman, were found in 1904 [Antiq. Feb. 191 1, p. 54]. The buildings and 

 numerous burials and small finds testify to the existence of a village here, or settled site 

 of some kind, in Roman and perhaps pre-Roman times. The straight piece of road running 

 north-east out of Verulamium and traced to within about 2 miles of Welwyn, probably 

 connected the town and village. For this see Roads. 



Westmill. — Some labourers in hollow-ditching in a field called ' Lemmonfield adjoining the 

 parish of Westmill ' in May 1729 came across three amphorae in a row 'a little incUning' 

 18 in. below the surface. They were pale red, 40 in. long, pointed at the bottom, narrow- 

 necked and two-handled, and full of dust and chalk. Two were said to be inscribed : on 

 the rim of one there was said to be ' p.r.a.' which is perhaps a misreading of ' farna ' figured 

 by another writer. The neck of the last-mentioned was 12 in. long. Horsley read the stamp 

 as Farnia and Hiibner as perhaps ' P-Ar. . . Va. . .' An amphora thus inscribed was found at 

 Colchester and another at Etampes [Cof^. Inscr. Latin, vii, 1331, 17, 18; xiii, 10002, 350^], 

 the last being read ' P-Arva.' Many bones are said to have been found in the neighbourhood. 

 Westmill is on Ermine Street and Braughing is only i J to 2 miles south-east. [Salmon, Surv. 

 (1731), ii, 423 ; Gough's copy of Horsley, Britannia Romana (Bodl. Lib., Gough Gen. Topog. 

 128) ; Camden's Brit. (ed. Gough, 1789), i, 345, pi. xvii, fig. 2, quoting Ward's MS. additions 

 to Horsley, hence Brayley and Britton, Beauties of Engl, and Wales, vii, 206 ; and Cussans, 

 Hist, of Herts. Braughing Hund. (1870), 202, also quoting Ward's Excerpta Misc. ii, now in 

 Brit. Mus. Add. MS. 6229, fol. 106]. 



Weston. — Mr. Seebohm mentions Roman coins found here [English Village Community (i 884), 434]. 



WiDFORD. — ^According to Cussans, there were ' two Roman barrows, one of which was partially 

 opened . . .in 1851, when a few objects, but none of great archaeological interest, were 

 discovered ' in a field on the eastern side of the River Ash [Hist, of Herts. Braughing Hund. 

 (1870), 55; cf. Sawbridgeworth]. No trace can now be discovered of these finds, which 

 apparently were made by Lord Braybrooke [Paper by E. E. Squires]. 



WiGGiNTON. — Tiles and coins which have been discovered here may indicate the presence of a 

 building of some sort in the neighbourhood [Gent. Mag. (1811), i, 388]. Coins and a gold 

 ring were found at the Cow Roast Inn, half a mile east, but in the parish of Northchurch 

 (q.v.) as marked on the 6-in. O.S. Map, sheet no. xxv, S.E. See also Northchurch, Tring and 

 Aldbury. Akeman Street begins to run in a fairly straight line a Uttle to the north-west of 

 Wigginton. 



WiLBURY Hill. — See Norton. 



WiLLiAN. — A Roman interment and coins are recorded by Mr. Ransom in Arch, liii, 262 ; Seebohm, 

 English Village Community (1884), 434. See also Royston. 



Wymondley, Great. — ^This parish has been very productive of Roman finds, (i) ' Lines of stone 

 about 2 ft. deep, running at right angles to one another,' without mortar, were found in 

 the field that contains the two mounds to the east of St. Mary's Church, while a line of 

 black earth, which turned out to be a ditch full of Roman objects, was observed running from 

 north to south, across the field east of that last mentioned, and also in the field opposite it 

 on the north side of the Graveley Road. It contained a quantity of Roman brick and roofing 

 tiles, ' heaps of Samian ware, several pieces of Castor, some of Upchurch, and also pieces 

 of New Forest pottery, strainers and parts of 6 mortaria,' pieces of Andernach querns, hones, 

 stone weights, fragments of glass, a strigil and pieces of bronze, a key, knives, horse-shoes, 

 many nails and spikes, a large number of knuckle-bones used as dice, cores of ox-horns (pro- 

 bably bos longifrons), bones of horse, sheep and hog, oyster shells and the following coins : — 



Vespasian [a.d. 69-79] Tetricus I [a.d. 268-73] 



Nerva [a.d. 96-8] Tetricus II [a.d. 268-73] 



z Pius [a.d. 138-61] Allectus [a.d. 293] 



Marcus Aurelius [a.d. 161-80] 2 Constantine I [a.d. 306-37] 



2 Gallienus [a.d. 253-68] Crispus [a.d. 317-26] 



Salonina [a.d. 253—68] Constantine II [a.d. 317-40] 



Postumus [a.d. 259 1-69 ?] Julian [a.d. 360-3] 



4 169 22 



