Page:VCH Northamptonshire 1.djvu/219

 ROMANO-BRITISH NORTHAMPTONSHIRE These remains on the south bank, of the Nene — a small town or village inside a rampart and ditch, with graveyards and potteries round it — are balanced by similar remains on the north bank. The Roman road which traversed the southern settlement helped to connect the two. It crossed the water by a bridge of stone and wood, traces of which were found and removed in 171 5; thence, while it itself pursued its north- westerly course towards Stamford, one or more branches diverged to the north and north-east.* These gave access to an extensive settlement, stretching from Normangate (or Normanton) Field by the river up to Castor and the rising ground, the distance of nearly a mile. No trace has yet been detected of any rampart or ditch enclosing it or any part of it,"* but the dwelling houses in it seem tp have been numerous and have been more fully explored than those south of the river. Morton, Stukeley, Gibson and others have recorded frequent accidental finds of walls, pavements, small objects, partly in Normangate Field and still more in Castor village near the parish church.' Artis largely increased our knowledge by excavation. In Nor- mangate Field he found houses with baths, tessellated floors and gaily painted walls, placed somewhat indiscriminately with numerous potters' kilns in the same quarter. Nearer Castor he thought to de- tect regular streets, and in Castor village he dug up parts of interesting houses scattered over an area of about twelve acres round the church. The surviving records of his work do not unfortunately enable us to understand precisely the character of all his discoveries. A cor- respondent of the Gentleman s Magazine (1822, i. 484), who visited the site in 1822, mentions a house with at least 56 rooms occupying a space of 500—600 feet square, but this is probably an error. Certainly it cannot be identified in Artis', ,.„. ,. ,. „ - plans. We can however realize that he j, „ „ r " 1 1 1 • 1 ^'°- 5- Bath-housb at Castor. found many houses, and we have his plans of one complete building and parts of three others. The complete building is a detached bath-house (fig. 5) situated near the Peterborough and Wansford road about a hundred yards south of the church ; it is 93 feet long by 58 feet at its greatest breadth, The road due north to Lolham Bridges (p. 204) must also have diverged here. satisfactory. Probably he saw part of a house afterwards examined by Artis. ' Morton, p. 509; Stukeley's Leilas, ii. 213, iii. 56-9 ; Gibson's Castor, p. 86. A mosaic was found in the churchyard in 1733, Minutes of the Peterborough Gentlemen's Society, Journal of the British Archaoh^cal Association, new ser. v. 147. 171
 * These branches require further examination. Artis marks two running north-east to Castor.
 * Stukeley alleges foundations of a town wall (Itinerarlum Curioium, p. 82), but his account is not