Page:VCH Staffordshire 1.djvu/240

 A HISTORY OF STAFFORDSHIRE (A.D. 306-37) were found, some glass and a plain bronze ring fibula. In one place a female skeleton with some beads, &c., and in other places human bones and skulls were dug up. Among the two or three fibulae found was one in bronze, enamelled with red and yellow lozenges, but most of the articles were of a rough and primitive character [Carrington, Reliq. v, 2OI ; Bateman, Ten Tears' Diggings, 193-203 ; Intellectual Observer, vii, 391]. The site has evidently been used as a quarry for building materials by the inhabitants of the neighbour- hood. The following articles found at Wetton were preserved in Mr. Bateman's collection [Catalogue Bateman Collection, Lomberdale House, 1855]. Those marked with an asterisk were afterwards presented to the Sheffield Museum [Catalogue Bateman Antiquities, Sheffield Museum, 1899] : * Part of a reeded handle from a glass vase ; pieces of burnt glass ; lilac and blue glass beads ;* harp-shaped bronze fibula, enamelled with a diamond pattern in yellow, red, and green ; * bronze ring fibula, if in. in diameter ; small slip of bronze, perforated at each end ; bronze pin i in. long, the thicker end representing the foot of an ox ; iron knives, one with stag's horn handle, fibulae ; shears, spear-heads, nails, &c. ; two cinerary urns ; fragments of mortaria and other vessels ; * small cylindrical vessel, 3^- in. high, if in. in diameter, with cheveron pattern, made of one large bone ; two imitations of brass coins of Tetricus ; * two flat sandstone pebbles, worked to a circular shape, 2 in. and 2 J in. in diameter ;* perforated disc of red earthenware ijin. in diameter ;* whetstones, one of grey sandstone, in Sheffield Museum ; * pieces of red paint ; pieces of stag's horn with marks of tooling. Twenty-three barrows or lows have been investigated in the vicinity since 1845, which showed evidences of occupation from remote times to the Roman period. A ' third brass ' of Gallienus (A.D. 253-68) was found in one of them with a skeleton. ' Thor's Cave,' which is in the side of a lofty precipice above the River Manifold, about half a mile from Wetton, was explored in 1864-5, anc l ' n it were found Samian and other Roman potsherds, stone querns, a sandstone disk, bone pins and combs, iron knives and arrow-heads, a lead spindle-whorl, a 'second brass' coin of Hadrian (A.D. 1 17-38), a bronze armlet, pins and two fibulae, which maybe ascribed to the second or early third century. All these objects were found in the earth forming the floor of the cave, together with many animal bones and signs of cooking and. fires. Some human bones were also discovered, but no distinct vestiges of a burial [Pitt, Hist. Staffs. , 240 ; Haverfield in F.C.H. Derb. i, 238 ; Carrington in Reliq. v, 20117 ; Brown in Mid. Scient. Assoc. Papers (1864-5)]. Professor Haverfield identifies ' Thor's Cave ' with Thirst or Thirse House, the name of one of the most extensively explored Romano-British caves in Derbyshire, and also of two other caves in Staffordshire, one at Alton and one near Wetton y.C.H. Derb. i, 233, n. l]. WICHNOR. In the park are remains of an intrenchment where several Roman coins have been found [Stebbing Shaw, Hist. Staffs, i, 18, 125 ; Pennant, Journey from Chester to London, 121-2]. WOLSTANTON. See CHESTERTON. WOLVERHAMPTON. A Roman urn, 9^ in. deep, 2 ft. in girth in the thickest part, of a coarse texture and pale red clay, was found in 1793 near St. Peter's Church. It lay on its side 9 ft. below the surface, and contained dark earth. The surrounding stratum was sand. Near it were considerable remains of human bones and teeth [Stebbing Shaw, Hist. Staffs, i, 35]. A bronze ring was also found here [Proc. Soc. Antiq. (Ser. 2) vi, 415]. YOXALL. In levelling a piece of ground in 1778 nearly forty urns of coarse brown pottery were found, containing ashes and fragments of human bones. Most of the vessels were broken in taking them up, but one is in the Lichfield Museum. The site was probably a Romano- British cemetery near to which there may have been a settlement [Stebbing Shaw, Hist. Staffs, i, 35, 331 ; Gent. Mag. xliv, 358 ; Camden, Brit. (ed. Gough) ii, 393]. 198