A HISTORY OF NOTTINGHAMSHIRE 



One of the earliest and certainly the fullest description of the place 

 comes from Stukeley, who visited Willoughby — or Margidunum, as he 



believed it to be — in 



1722 : — 



When arrived over against Willoughby on the wold on the right, Upper and Nether 

 Broughton on the left, you find a tumulus on Willoughby side of the road, famous among 

 the country people : it is called Cross Hill ... the name of Broughton set me to work to 

 find the Roman town . . . after some time I perceived I was upon the spot, being a field 

 called Herrings . . . Here they said had been an old city called Long Billington . . . The 

 soil is perfectly black, though all the circumjacent land be red, especially north of the valley 

 upon the edge of the hill and where most antiquities are found. Richard Cooper, aged 72, 

 has foimd many brass and silver coins here ; there have been some of gold. Many mosaic 

 pavements have been dug up : my landlord, Gee of Willoughby, says he has upon ploughing 

 met with such for 5 yds. together, as likewise coins, pot-hooks, fire-shovels and the like 

 utensils, and many large brass coins which they took for weights, ounces and half-ounces, 

 but upon trial found them somewhat less. Broad stones and foundations are frequent upon 

 the sides of the Foss. The ground naturally is so stiff a marl that at Willoughby town 

 they pave their yards with stones fetched from the Foss Way. At Over and Nether 

 Broughton and Willoughby too the coins are so frequent that you hear of them all the 

 country round. 



Fig. 4. — Plan of the Site of Vernemetum 



(From tie Ordnance Survey) 



"'Iti„. Cur 106, with plan on pi. 91 ; see also Dickinson, .f„tif. i„ Nott!. i, 87, who identifies Verne- 

 metum here, and Anttq. xxxvui, 296. 



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