Page:VCH Norfolk 1.djvu/349

 ROMANO-BRITISH NORFOLK 2. At Baconsthorpe. Here Mr. F. G. Spurrell has noticed 'bricks, sherds, querns, etc.,' at and near the ruined Hall and in Baconsthorpe generally, and the bricks, if Roman, may indicate a house. No other writer, however, mentions such remains.^ For the large hoard found near this village in 1878 see the seventh section of this article. 3. Near Brundall railway station, on the rising ground to the north- west. Here discoveries made in 1882—87 indicate a dwelling and per- haps local manufacture of common pottery. Half a mile west of the station, at a level of 20 feet above the marshes of the Yare, in Dr. Beverley's grounds, a curious depression was found, 100 feet long and 5 feet deep, filled with irregular lumps of clay mixed with charcoal ; some carbonized oak, iron nails, an iron knife and an iron blade were detected also among the clay lumps, and two drains made of roof-tiles were traced running down the slope to the depression. Higher up and 200 yards to the west, a heap of unburnt clay bricks and some potsherds were unearthed, while close by flue and building-tiles, foundations of brick and concrete rubble, a roof-tile with a nail in it, and fragments of Samian and other pottery occurred. Long ago, in 1820, some burial urns were found in the same locality, in the Upper and Lower Chapel- field, but it is not certain if they were of Roman date.' 4. Dunham. Fragments of Roman brick have been seen in the church tower by Mr. G. E. Fox, and pieces of Roman pottery and coins are said to have been found in the parish of Great Dunham. A circular enamelled brooch has been found at Little Dunham hard by.' 5. Fring, at a spot on the west side of Peddar's Way. Here, in the last decade of the eighteenth century ' some labourers in ditching broke up the remains of a pavement apparently Roman, which the country people broke up and carried away great part of. The owner of the ground ordered the spot to be carefully covered up for the future inspection of antiquaries.' Unfortunately no antiquaries have yet availed themselves of the owner's wisdom.* 6. Howe. Here Mr. Fox mentions undoubted Roman brick and tile in the masonry of the church, and a gold coin of Nero has been found in the parish.^ The bricks and tile might possibly have come from Caister-by-Norwich, which is not quite 4 miles to the north-west. 7. Methwold, about three-quarters of a mile north of the village and a quarter of a mile west of the third milestone from Stoke Ferry on the Stoke and Brandon road, at ' Little Holme,' between the convergence of the String Drain and Hoggard's Dyke. Here part of a dwelling- house has been actually excavated — three small rooms, each about 8 feet ^ G. E. Fox, Archaohgical Journal, xlvi. 354, 355 ; H. Daveney, East Anglian Notes and Queries, i. (i860) 134. I understand that nothing definite has been found since 1887, but that bricks, tiles and pottery are constantly turned up in digging. ' G. E. Fox, Archaolo^cal Journal, xlvi. 359 ; Norfolk Arc hceology, i. 360. The fibula is figured by Dawson Turner (MS. 23,029, p. 81) and in the Norwich volume of the Institute, xxvii. xlii. 6 Arch<eohffcal Journal, x. 62 ; G. E. Fox, ibid. xlvi. 335, 362. 297
 * A rchceohgical Journal, xxxi. 434.
 * Gough's Add. to Camden, ii. 201 ; Archaologia, xxiii. 370.