264 



Notes, Archaeological and Historical, 



seemed to point to cremation. The whole of the pottery found in both mounds 

 is of the same character, and it exactly agrees also with that found around 

 the remains of a kiln at Hunt's Mill. Since Mr. Leslie's notes were written 

 specimens from all these three localities have been submitted to Gen. Pitt-Rivers 

 for examination, and by him pronounced to be certainly Norman, and not 

 Eomano-British, as had been supposed. This goes to prove that the mounds in 

 question were not sepulchral " barrows " at all — a belief strengthened by the 

 fact that Mr. E. C. Trepplin has lately discovered documentary evidence of a 

 windmill having once stood somewhere close to the site of the Knighton 

 " barrow." Both these mounds occupy sites favourable for windmills, and it is 

 most probable that they were originally thrown up for this purpose. The pottery 

 is a coarse ware, mostly unglazed, but with here and there pieces with the 

 greenish yellow glaze recognised as characteristic of Norman pottery. It is grey 

 in the inside, and either blackish grey, fawn-coloured, or reddish brown on the 

 outside. It is made of clay with a quantity of oolitic grains in it, and is burnt 

 harder than British pottery generally is. It includes, too, a considerable number 

 of fragments of large handles of vessels, ornamented with coarse herring-bone 

 and transverse lines cut deeply into the clay. Similar fragments, amongst which 

 these handles also occur, have been found in the vicarage garden and paddock at 

 Clyffe Pypard, and at Hilmarton. Possibly it may all have been made at the 

 Hunt's Mill kiln. This was discovered two or three years ago, in a quarry 

 opened in the coral rag, for road material, close to Hunt's Mill Farm, the spot 

 being alongside the Wootton Bassett and Lyneham Road, and within a very 

 short distance of the turning to Greenhill and Bushton. It consisted of a round 

 shaft about 10ft. in diameter, excavated in the rock, the sides of which were 

 much charred by fire. It has since been destroyed. Mr. W. F. Parsons, of 

 Hunt's Mill Farm, writes : — " The first idea I had that the pottery was made 

 here was when we opened the quarry in 1853 and found a lot of charred stones 

 and the bed of clay underneath the stone similar to that of which a quantity of 

 panshards were made which had been lying about on the side of the hill ever 

 since I could remember. At one time I had collected nearly forty different 

 patterns of rims of vessels, many of which must have been large." Specimens 

 of this pottery from the kiln and the two mounds have been placed in the 

 Society's Museum. 



E. H. Goddaed. 



Aldbottrne Token. 



Mr. A. D. Passmore, of Swindon, has a specimen of a scarce token, found in 

 that neighbourhood, which reads as follows : — 



FRANCIS STRONG = HIS HALFE PENY. 



OF AWBORNE. 1669 = A flower between the initials F.S. 



The G at the end of Strong has apparently been injured in the die, and has 

 somewhat the appearance of an e, which doubtless accounts for the fact that 

 Dr. Williamson, in his edition of Boyne's Tokens, gives an Aldbourne token as 

 reading pbancis stbone. Probably this is the same token as the one mentioned 



