ROMANO-BRITISH BEDFORDSHIRE 



a Roman kiln here for the manufacture of coarse pottery. Very few of the urns show any 

 attempt at ornamentation. On the north-east slope of the mound a few pieces of Samian 

 ware and of a rude black pottery were discovered, also an iron knife of the same kind as some 

 found at Silchester, 7^ in. long, triangular in form, having a cutting edge on one side and a 

 socket for the wooden handle [Proc. Soc. Jntiq. (Ser. 2), iii, 67 ; vi, 184 ; Fox, Guide to the 

 Silchester Coll. in the Reading Museum, 19]. In 1838 the bronze figure of an elephant was 

 found by some labourers while cutting a ditch near Toddington. It was thought to be 

 of Roman workmanship [Arch, xxviii, App. 434]. Coins and other remains have also 

 been found in a field beyond the town [yourn. Brit. Arch. Assoc, ii, 271 ; iii, 334]. 



roTTERNHOE. — There is a camp on the Downs, about two miles north-west of Dunstable, of a 

 rectangular oblong shape, which may have been Roman. Many coins have been found here, 

 including a gold one of Vespasian (a.d. 70-9) {V.C.H. Beds, i, 294 ; W. G. Smith, Dunstable : 

 its Hist, and Surroundings, 41-55 ; Assoc. Arch. Soc. xi, App. p. xlix, 148 ; Lysons, Magna 

 Brit, i, 35 ; Arch, xxvii, 100]. In 1899 some refuse pits were opened in the West Field. 

 There were eight long trenches in a row, from 24 ft. to 30 ft. apart, which were found to be 

 full of broken Roman pottery and bones. The pottery included not only fragments of vases 

 of all sorts, but floor and roof tiles and pieces of Samian ware, also a bronze winged Phallus 

 and some coins [W. G. Smith, Dunstable : its Hist, and Surroundings, 54 ; Proc. Soc. Antiq. 

 (Ser. 2), xxi, 82]. 



Old Warden. — Two amphorae of large size were found forty yards or fifty yards beyond the ditch 

 on the north side of Quint's Hill, where there is a small circular encampment to the north of 

 Warden church [Publ. Camb. Antiq. Soc. i, 3, 4]. 



V/iLLiNGTON. — In i860 some coarse pottery, fragments of Samian ware, and a number of bones 

 were discovered. Also in a field between Bromham and Willington a skeleton in a crouched 

 posture, and near it a third brass of Magnentius (a.d. 350-3) [Arch. Journ. xxxix, 282]. 



WoBORN. — A very perfect specimen of an amphora was found within three feet of the surface in 

 the park of Woburn Abbey in 1833. Thirty years before another had been discovered in the 

 same place ; these are both now in the possession of the Duke of Bedford, in whose collection 

 are also a fragment of one in yellow clay and some other pottery found in the park. A 

 century before an amphora had been found about two miles away, now in the possession of 

 Mr. Howe, of Apsley ^* [Arch, xxv, 606 ; MS. Min. Soc. Antiq. xxxvi, 284 ; Parry, Guide to 

 Woburn Abbey]. 



Yelden. — About half a mile from Yelden Castle, in the ' Open Field 'on the Chelveston side, Roman 

 pottery, tesserae, building stones and the merest fragments of foundations have been discovered, 

 possibly the remains of a villa [Assoc. Arch. Soc. xvi, 363 ; Arch. Journ. xxxix, 82 ; Northants 

 N. and Q. i, 9]. A first brass of Marcus Aiu-elius (a.d. 161-9) ^"<1 * s'lver denarius of Nerva 

 (a.d. 96) were also picked up near the site. 



U ' 



' The Duke of Bedford in a letter in Arciaeologia (xxv, 606) stated that the first of these amphorae 

 (Mr. Howe's) is ' figured by Lysons in the first volume of Magna Britannia.' It is there given as having been 

 found at Wavendon Heath, Bucks. 



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