ROMANO-BRITISH NOTTINGHAMSHIRE 



a road with Derventio (Little Chester) near Derby. The latter would 

 accordingly claim it as the north-eastern extension of Ryknield Street ; but 

 the Ordnance maps, as Mr, Stevenson points out, lend no countenance to such 

 an idea, and Professor Haverfield recognizes no road but the one leading 

 northwards from Little Chester to Clay Cross. ^' Thus the only portion of 

 this road which rests on anything like adequate evidence is that passing the 

 dwelling at Mansfield Woodhouse, which must have had some means of 

 communication with the outside world. 



(iii) Watkin mentions a supposed road from Little Chester - (Der- 

 ventio) in Derbyshire, crossing the Trent at Sawley, and continuing by 

 Leake to join the Fosse at Willoughby." Professor Haverfield accepts 

 the Derbyshire portion of this road,^' but rightly points out that the traces 

 of a continuation, which Watkin says are ' almost obliterated,' are really 

 non-existent. 



Places of Permanent Occupation 



(l) BROUGH (cROCOCOLANa) ^' 



The first Roman station on the Fosse, after it enters Nottinghamshire 

 from Lincoln, the Crococolana of the Itinerary, is now certainly identified 

 with the little hamlet of Brough, about one-and-three-quarter miles east of 

 CoUingham.'"' According to Horsley affinity of sound induced some 

 antiquaries to fix it rather at Collingham,''^ in which parish Brough lies. 

 Dr. Wake says the name was first fixed by Gibson,^^ and Throsby seems 

 inclined to dispute the identification.^^ The distance from Lincoln is given 

 in one Itinerary as twelve miles, in the other as fourteen, the former being 

 the actual distance in English miles. 



Crococolana seems to have been a place of some small importance. An 

 area of about forty acres is thought to have been inhabited, and the objects 

 discovered here show that it was more than a mere outpost or halting-place.^* 

 No buildings or earthworks are now visible on the surface, and as long ago as 

 1732 Horsley wrote that 'the ramparts at Brugh are levelled by the plow.'" 

 He goes on to say ' many Roman coins have been found here. I purchased 

 one, which I take to be Philip, of an old man who had lived here many years, 

 and gave me an account of several things relating to this station. He told 

 me they often struck upon ruins in plowing or digging, and had a tradition of 

 an old town formerly standing there.' 



«' V.C.H. Derb. i, 245. 



°' Arch. Journ. xliii, 43 ; see also Bennet in Lysans, Derb. p. ccxv ; Journ. Derb. Arch. Soc. vili, 

 213 ; Notts, and Derb. N. and Q. vi, 83. 



^ V.C.H. Derb. i, 246. He suggests that it served to connect Derventio vi^ith the navigable Trent, but 

 thinks it may have turned off to the villa at Barton (p. 23). 



*' So the better MSS. of the Itinerary, as it seems. Other MSS. read ' Crococolano.' 



" O.S. 6-in. xxxi, SW. See section on Roads, p. 5. 



'' Horsley, "Brit. Rom. 439 ; Pointer speaks of a 'camp near Long Collingham,' which might be held to 

 imply Brough. Brit. Rom. 41 ; Gale, Anton. Itin. Brit. 102. 



" Hist, of Collingham, 2 ; cf. Gibson's Camden, i, 435 ; and Antiq. xxxviii, 297. 



" Thoroton, Hist, of Notts, i, 374. 



'• Thoroton Soc. Trans, x, 63 (WooUey). " Op. cit. 439. 



II 



