A HISTORY OF BEDFORDSHIRE 



ments of pottery in sufficient quantity to make fifty urns. Some burnt bones of large animals 

 and one unburnt human skeleton were also found. The shaft was filled up with calcined 

 pebbles. Pits of a somewhat similar kind have been found in different parts of England, notably 

 at Mount Caburn in Sussex \_Arch. xlvi, 423 et seq], at Ewell in Surrey [ibid.], and at Stone 

 in Buckinghamshire [ibid.]. There are also others in Bedfordshire, at Sewell, near Dunstable, 

 and at Maiden Bower (q.v.). In regard to the uses of these deep shafts no decided opinion 

 seems to have been formed by any of the explorers [ibid. 448-9 ; Assoc, Arch. Soc. xvi, 

 284 ; iv, 283 ; Proc. Soc. Antiq. (Ser. 2), iii, 304 ; Coote, The Romans in Britain, 107 ; King, 

 Monumenta Antiqua^'x, 29, 44 ; Price, Roman Antiq. 34 ; Arch. Journ. xxxix, 285]. In 1873 

 three large cinerary urns, a poculum, two paterae of Samian ware, one bearing the potter's 

 mark, of calvi (the mark on the other being illegible), and portions of a Samian bowl were 

 found [Arch. Journ. xxxix, 285]. 

 Biggleswade. — An oculist's stamp, now in the British Museum, was found at the Ballast Hole 

 near the railway station in 1873. It is a rectangular piece of steatite, measuring 2 in. by if in. 

 on the surface, and |-in. in thickness. The four edges or borders are more or less bevelled, and 

 each has two lines of inscription in small Roman capitals reversed, as follows : — 



(i) c[aii] val[erii] amandi dioxum ad reumatic[am] 

 (ii) c[aii] val[erii] amandi stactum ad ca[liginem] 

 (iii) c[aii] val[erii] valentini diagi.auc[ium] post impetum lip[pitudinis] 

 (iv) c[aii] val[erii] valentini mixtum ad cl[aritudinem] 



The top and bottom of the stamp have also inscriptions of a graflSto character, not reversed, 

 which are merely indications to the persons using it, which stamp was to be taken. Near to 

 the edge of the first inscription are scratched the letters diox, near to the second inscription 

 STAC, near to the third inscription diaglauc, and near to the fourth mixt \_Proc. Soc. Antiq. 

 (Ser. 2), vi, 39 ; Arch. Journ. xxxiii, 360]. 



Bromham. — A bronze head steelyard weight was ploughed up in a field at Bromham in 1853 

 [Proc. Soc. Antiq. (Ser. i), ii, 304 ; N. and Q. Apr. 1901, p. 317]. 



Caddington. — In 1895 fragments of pottery were found near Caddington church, and a second 

 brass coin, too much corroded for identification. Also in a field not far oflF a coin inscribed, 

 C. CAESAR. AUG. GERMANICUS (? Caligula, A.D. 37-41), was found in an extensive refuse pit 

 with quantities of broken pottery, glass, &c. [Nature, 4 July, 1895 ; Worthington G. Smith, 

 Dunstable : its Hist, and Surroundings, 53]. 



Clifton. — A vase, said to be of Samian ware, was dug up on the site of a supposed Roman grave in 

 1847-8 [Journ. Brit. Arch. Soc. iv, 57]. 



CoPLE. — Roman coins were found in 1851 near the road to Northill [Assoc. Arch. Soc. i, 383]. 



Cranfield. — Coins were also found here [Arch. Journ. xxxix, 267]. 



Dunstable. — There can be little doubt that the Roman station of Durocobrivae was situated at or 

 near to Dunstable, where the Icknield Way crosses the Watling Street [Proc. Soc. Antiq. (Old 

 Ser.), i, 177 ; Assoc. Arch. Soc. xi, 150 ; xviii, 162]. From the 'Itinerary of Antoninus' Dun- 

 stable can be identified with Durocobrivae [Fetera Rom. Itin. (ed. Wesseling), 470-1 ; see 

 under section on Roman roads]. Richard of Cirencester, or rather Bertram, however, in 

 following the same route gave the imaginary name of Forum Dianae, instead of Durocobrivae 

 [Ric. de Cirencestria (Rolls Ser.) ii, Pref. p. Ixvii ; Codrington, Roman Roads in Brit. 71]. 

 Stukeley placed Magiovinium at Dunstable [Itin. Cur. 115], but the evidence against such an 

 identification is strong, and modern research tends to prove the authenticity of Durocobrivae 

 [Lysons, Magna Brit, i, 27 ; Assoc. Arch. Soc. xi, 44]. Although there was without doubt a 

 Romano-British settlement at Dunstable, probably merely a posting station, possibly at or near 

 the crossing of Watling Street and the Icknield Way, its exact site is unknown. The station 

 was probably not inclosed by masonry or earthen walls, and contained no houses sufficiently 

 substantial to require masonry foundations, hence there is little to allocate the exact site 

 particularly as the Romano-British objects discovered have been found scattered over a wide 

 area. At Cold Harbour, near Dagnall, on the west side of Dunstable, and close to the 

 Icknield Way, some Roman roofing tiles, broken urns, and other pottery, including a 

 Samian bowl marked nicephor f, also stone querns, and a chain of nine links in brass 

 said to be a Roman horse-bit, have been found [W. G. Smith, Dunstable : its Hist, and 

 Surroundings, 52—7]. 



At Street Field at the foot of the downs a number of coins have come to light, and in 

 1770 at Shepherd's Bush a pot of red ware nearly full of small copper coins from Antoninus 

 (A.D. 138) to Constantine (a.d. 305), together with many small ornaments of bridles and 

 armour, were found by some labourers digging for gravel [Arch, xxvii, 96 ; Nichols, Bibl. Topog 

 Brit. (1790), 202 ; Brayley, Beauties of Engl, and Wales, i, 28]. Other coins have since been 



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