Page:VCH Berkshire 1.djvu/292

 A HISTORY OF BERKSHIRE MARLSTON. See Bucklebury. MILTON. A large circular fibula found in Milton North Field on the breast of a skeleton is preserved in the Ashmolean Museum. It seems to be uncertain whether it is Romano- British or Saxon [Arch. Journ. iv. 252, 253]. MOULSFORD. Third brass and billon coins of Valerianus (A.D. 254-263) [Hedges, Hist, of Wallingford i. 142]. NEWBURY. See Speen. OAKFIELD PARK. See Sulhamstead-Bannister. PANGBOURNE. On Shooter's Hill, in the course of excavations for the Great Western Railway, some human skeletons were disinterred [Gent. Mag. 1838, ii. 650]. Several small sepul- chral urns of rude workmanship were with them, more than forty Roman coins, gold, silver and brass, from Domitian to Gratian (A.D. 69-383) and spear-heads, battle-axes and spurs. A later reference [Arch. Journ. i. 163] mentions nearly 100 skeletons and also the foundations of a structure said to have resembled a lime kiln and to have con- tained a large quantity of charcoal and burnt human bones. A skull found on this spot contained two third brass coins, one of Constantius II (A.D. 323-350) struck at Lyons, the other unknown, but belonging to the same period [Hedges, Hist, of Wallingford, i. 137]. The Reading Museum contains some horse-shoes from Pangbourne which may be Roman. PERBOROUGH CASTLE. See Compton. POUGHLEY FARM. See Chaddleworth. RADLEY. Two pots, said to be Roman, found about 1888 in a field called ' Radley Plains ' [Berks, Sucks and Oxon Arch. Journ. July 1898, 44]. Lines, circles and squares shown by the growth of the crops and probably marking the site of an early settlement [Proc. Soc. Antiq. (ser. 2) xviii. 15]. READING. Though no Roman foundations have been discovered in Reading it seems pro- bable from the variety of relics found in different parts of the town that some small Romano-British settlement once existed here. Fragments of common pottery were found at the Gas Works in 1880 Journ. Brit. Arch. Assoc. xxxvii. 264]. An ancient cemetery near the King's Road, uncovered ten years later, was supposed by Dr. Stevens [Berks, Bucks and Oxon Arch. Journ. i. 102] to have been in use by British Christians and after- wards by pagan Saxons, as the skeletons at the lowest level were oriented. Fragments of Roman pottery were found here also and a piece of a foundation wall of coarse flint and mortar. Some coarse pottery, the remains of a large urn, hand-made, with much flint grit, two lower stones of querns almost perfect, a loom-weight and fragments of Upchurch and Samian ware, all exhibited in the Reading Museum, come from the Manor Farm. Two very interesting fibulae from Battle Farm have been pre- sented to the same collection. Both will be described in the note on Early Brooches forming an appendix to this article. Samian ware has been found in the Bath Road and at Coley. Various pieces of pottery have been dredged from the Thames and the Kennet and from the latter river also a knife and three bronze articles, a ladle, a spoon and a fibula, its foot originally set with pieces of coral, the spring strengthened with iron. All these are in the Reading Museum and also some Roman horse-shoes from the town. A large amphora is said to have been dug out at Katesgrove and afterwards removed to London [Desc. Cat. Reading Mus. pt. i. 43]. At Bob's Mount fragments of pottery have been found. Two hoards of coins were discovered in gravel pits in the Milman Road [Desc. Cat. Reading Mus. pt. i. 44]. The first consisted of about fifty silver coins in a small drinking- cup which, with eleven denarii dating from Julian to Arcadius (A.D. 355-408), is in the Reading Museum. There were 120 coins in the other vessel a glazed thumb-pot of New Forest ware. This and fifty specimens from the hoard, Constantius II to Arcadius (A.D. 323-361) are in the same collection. One of Valentinian II is of gold, the rest are denarii, amongst them two of Eugenius of a rare type with TR. PS in the exergue. Another rare coin, probably unique, found in Reading and sold at the Brumell sale for 37 ids. was an aureus of Allectus (A.D. 293-296) with M.L. in the exergue [Stevenson, Diet, of Roman Coins, 183]. Single coins have been found in various parts of the town, some of which are a first brass of Julia Mamaea (A.D. 222-235) * rom Whitley, a denarius of Vespasian (A.D. 70-79) from Grovelands, a denarius of Trajan (A.D. 98-117) from the Bath Road, and from Coley two denarii of Septimius Severus. Roman coins have also been found in the hamlet of Southcote. 212