BEDDINGTON IN THE ROMAN PERIOD. 



Besides these evidences of tiie residence of tiie Romans in the neigh- 

 bourhood, a silver spoon, now in the possession of Mr. Cressingham, was 

 found at Barrow Hedges, Carshalton 

 (fig. 9). Fragments of Roman glass 



have been found at Wallington. Fur- p,^. g._Ro„,an spoon, 



ther south, at Woodcote, Roman remains have been described ; and 

 still further, at Waltbn-on-the- Heath, Lysons records that the remains 

 of a Roman house were found in the year 1772. 



Various antiquaries have considered the Roman town Noviomagus, 

 mentioned^ in the Itinerary of Antoninus, to have been situated at Wood- 

 cote, on the hills .south of my garden. Camden assigns this situation to 

 it because he considers that the distances agree with the statements 

 in the Itinerary, and because it was described as the chief city of the 

 Regni, a people of Surrey. Dr. Gale also placed it in that position, 

 Gibson, Somner, Stillingfleet, Stukeley, and Baxter, on the other hand, 

 consider that Noviomagus was at Crayford, because that position is 

 in a straight line between Maidstone and London. Curiously enough. 

 Sir Tliomas Eliot places this city at Chester, Lilly at Buckingharn, 

 Lluyd at Guildford, and Talbot at Old Croydon. From these various 

 statements it is manifest that the site of this Roman city is unknown, 

 and I myself regard it as one of those problems which will never be 

 unravelled unless some fresh discovery be made. 



The Roman road called Stane Street, extending from the sea-coast 

 to London, and thence by the Great Ermine Street to Scotland, through 

 Lincoln, is supposed to have passed through or near Beddington 

 parish, though no trace of it is now to be seen. It has been thought 

 to leave Sussex ; it reappears at Ocldey, where it is marked in 

 the Ordnance Survey map as running on the present turnpike road 

 for two miles and a half. Some persons think that Stane Street 

 passed north of Dorking, across Walton Heath, thence to Woodcote, 

 and from this latter place to Streatham. Mr. Standish informs me 

 that Stane Street is not mentioned in the Itinerary, nor does Richard 

 of Cirencester, the mediaeval authority on the subject, A.D. 1350 

 to 1400, allude to it. Sir Duffus Hardy, in his map of the Roman 



