308 Inaugural Address by the President of the Society, 



section was cut at a spot which was to the east of the place where 

 the Fore and Rear Dykes branched off, and in order to make the 

 contents of this part of the entrenchment more certain, the rampart 

 portion of Section 1 was extended, and a coin of Maximinus II. (A.D. 

 308 — 313) was found on the old surface-line, and numerous fragments 

 of both British and Romano-British pottery in the same section. 

 This removed all possibility of doubt, if any had existed, of this 

 part being of Roman origin. In the Rear Dyke, which had been 

 filled up, Roman coins, extending from Septimius Severus to Gratian, 

 Roman pottery and relics of the same character as those found in 

 the rest of the settlement and in the Fore Dyke were discovered. 



About 870yds. to the west of this spot there is a short detached 

 fragment of a dyke, marked in the map, in rear of the Fore Dyke, 

 which had puzzled Sir Richard Hoare. It is marked u ditch " in 

 the Ordnance 6-inch map, and abuts upon the west of the road 

 from Woodyates to Cobley Farm. It now appears evident that 

 this is a continuation of the Rear Dyke, and that if the ground was 

 excavated it would be found to be connected with the fragment 

 discovered at the Bokerly Junction, which is the name I gave to that 

 spot for reasons that do not now require explanation. The Rear 

 Dyke is seen again in rear of the Fore Dyke running through the 

 orchard to the north of West Woodyates Farm. 



A section was now cut in prolongation of the Roman Road, 

 through the rampart of the Fore Dyke, and the flint pitching of 

 the Roman Road was found under the bank. This, on being traced 

 southwards, was found to lie over the filling of the ditch of the Rear 

 Dyke, proving that the Roman Road was used after the Rear Dyke 

 was filled in. It does not follow that the Roman Road was made 

 after the Rear Dyke was filled in, as it may have been dug across, 

 and the road afterwards laid again over the filling of the ditch. 



As it was now evident that one great alteration had been made in 

 the defences at Bokerly J unction, one dyke destroyed, and another 

 erected outside and in front of it, and the defences all along the 

 line apparently renewed, it became of still greater interest to examine 

 more closely the epaulement, spoken of in the first part of my paper, 

 and ascertain whether this may not have been the point of junction 



