Page:VCH Northamptonshire 1.djvu/256

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A HISTORY OF NORTHAMPTONSHIRE (10) Weekley, near Kettering. Here foundations, tessellated pave- ments and potsherds have been found on the north side of the village at Castle Hedges near Boughton House, and coins have been dug up in front of Boughton House and at the bowling green (Vespasian, Trajan, etc.). On the south side of the village, near the Kettering boundary, many coins, ranging from Vespasian to Valentinian, have been found in a field called Blackmiles, and an earthwork has been traced, more or less conjecturally, connecting the two sites.* Neither site has been explored. (11) Lowick, near Thrapston. A piece of tessellated pavement, 1 1 by 3 feet in size, is said to have been found in 1736 in this parish near Drayton House.^ (12) Woodford, near Thrapston. ' On the south side of the river Nyne (Nene) in Woodford field are manifest signs of a place possessed by the Romans. On that called the Meadow Furlong we now find abundance of the Roman dice-like bricks, as also many pieces of oddly engraven tiles.' So Morton. One or two fourth century coins and an urn have also been found here.' (13) Raunds. Here a spot once and perhaps still called Mallows Cotton, on slightly rising ground between the Hogdyke and the boundary of Ringstead parish, has yielded evidences of permanent occupation — foundations, coins, pottery. Potsherds may still be picked up there and surface indications of buildings are visible. The site has been described as that of a ' camp ' or fort. But nothing has ever been found to support this view ; the alleged earthworks bear not the least resemblance to a camp or fort, and we may most naturally suppose that the remains belong to a ' villa.'* (14) Stanwick. Here a mile and a quarter south of Mallows Cotton, fragments of a tessellated pavement are said to have been found at the further end of ' the meadow furlong.' I was told on the spot that the site is west of the village, between it and the Nene, and near the south end of a green lane (sometimes fancied to be a Roman road), which runs north towards Mallows Cotton. ° (15) Brixworth. Here reused Roman bricks may be seen in the walls of the Saxon church, and Roman pottery has been found — for instance, in Lodge Leys field, a quarter of a mile north of the church — and Roman coins of Pius, Carausius and others have been picked up. These evidences seem adequate to prove the existence of some dwelling. But the often ' Morton, p. 530; Bridges, ii. 344; Stukeley, Letters, iii. 64, 72 (with a wild idea of a camp of Ostorius) ; Charles Wise, The Compotus of the Manor of Kettering for 1292 (Kettering, 1899), P- 82. 2 Gough, Brit. Topogr. ii. 48, referring to the Minutes of the Society of Antiquaries, which I have searched in vain ; from Gough, Evans and Britton, p. 18 10. Gough says that the mosaic was engraved by Vertue for Lady Germaine. 3 Morton, p. 529, hence Bridges, ii. 265, 269, and Gough, Add. to Camden, ii. 282.

  • Ibid, p. 516 (hence Bridges ii. 190 ; Gough, Add. to Camden, ii. 275 ; Reynolds, p. 475,

etc.) ; Whellan, p. 925. The earthwork at Mill Cotton near Ringstead Station is sometimes coupled with this site, but it seems not Roman at all. 6 Bridges, ii. 194 ; hence Reynolds, p. 463, etc. 194