Page:VCH Berkshire 1.djvu/302

 A HISTORY OF BERKSHIRE nearly all the fields there. In a field on the Down Farm in the same parish about two miles from Northfield, Roman or Romano-British skeletons were discovered, some with Samian vessels buried with them. One had a terra-cotta lamp near it, another a coin of Constantius between its teeth. More than thirty years before Mr. Hewett began his investigations a cemetery, probably used by the people of this village, was discovered in Long Wittenham in a field bounded by the road to Wallingford, about two miles south- west of Northfield Farm, and excavated under the direction of Mr. Akerman [Arch, xxxviii. 327-352 ; xxxix. 135-143 ; Proc. Soc. Antiq. (ser. 2) ii. 37, 133]. The interments there brought to light, both then and in the following year, were all Anglo-Saxon, though there were a few relics of Roman origin, some coins pierced for suspension and an oval bronze fibula and bronze clasp, probably of Romano- British workmanship. But in May 1861 four interments of a different character were found in a gravel pit in the same parish and pronounced by Mr. Akerman on the descrip- tion of Mr. Clutterbuck the vicar, to belong to a period be- tween the reign of Constantine and the settlement of the Saxons. With one was found a light red Roman poculum slightly indented at the sides, and a few yards off were two OVAL BRONZE FIBULA FROM funerea i urns. Similar funereal urns and interments had LONG WITTENHAM. b eenj so M r _ Clutterbuck reported, frequently discovered on the same spot. A few finds seem to have been made in this parish at an earlier date. One was a small Roman pot, perhaps of Upchurch ware, found in a railway cutting in 1844 [Berks, Bucks and Oxon Arch. Journ. July 1898 ; Journ. Brit. Arch. Assoc. iii. 329]. Other Roman pottery, some of which is said to have been Samian, was exhibited to the British Archzeolo- gical Association a few years later from ' Longwittenham Field.' WOKINGHAM. Fine cinerary urn, now in Reading Museum, and some broken pottery found near the Palmer Schools in 1886 [Desc. Cat. Reading Mus. pt. i. 49]. Urn containing coins, some of Constantine (A.D. 306-337) dug up near the town [Arch. xix. 98]. WOOLSTONE. Two Roman pavements said to have been uncovered here in 1884 were men- tioned in the contemporary newspapers [The Times, 23 May, 1884; Illust. Land. News, 5 July, 1884]. A later account added that fragments of tiles, tesserae and pottery were found in the neighbouring fields in large quantities and that foundations and portions of stone walls were turned up by the ploughshare. The site, however, which is situated in the Vale of the White Horse at the foot of the hill, was not thoroughly explored, excavations being soon discontinued [Antiq. x. 133]. The first pavement is described in Morgan's Romano-British Mosaics (p. 149). WOOTTON. Roman pottery near Fox Inn [Arch. Journ. liv. 352]. WYTHAM. Fragments of Romano-British pottery seen in a gravel-pit here, 1894 Berks, Bucks and Oxon Arch. Journ. July 1898, pp. 45, 46]. NOTE ON VARIOUS BROOCHES A number of early brooches in the Reading Museum call for special remark, though their importance depends on the site of their discovery, which is for the most part not precisely recorded. Until quite recently, some of the specimens would have been regarded without ques- tion as recent purchases from dealers in antiquities, confused maybe with local products for want of proper labelling ; but evidence for the discovery of such types on British soil is now accumulating, and a few words of description may perhaps serve to draw attention to the subject of foreign relations long before the Roman Conquest. Though details as to their discovery are wanting in some cases, these brooches can be classed according to type ; and while any particular type may have been in use about the same date wherever found, some latitude must be allowed in assigning chronological limits to their manufacture. The earliest specimens here under discussion can hardly be of native British workmanship, but may have been imported before they had gone out of fashion on 222