Page:VCH Suffolk 1.djvu/386

 A HISTORY OF SUFFOLK the side of the excavation, and the baking floor constructed. The pottery found about kiln no. I consisted principally of pieces of globular vessels with one handle, the vessels capable of holding from one pint to two quarts. They were rather fine ware, ruddy in hue. With them were some remains of little bowls of light red ware with machine-made markings, and some few other fragments. The pottery found about kiln no. 2, which had been used occasionally as a smother-kiln, was somewhat more varied. Fragments of urns resembling some kind of cinerary urns, some small jars of black ware ornamented with burnished lines as a diaper, a fragment of a jar with broad bands of dots in slip, and also pieces of a ware showing a micaceous glaze, lay about this kiln. On a spot about half a mile from the kilns to the east, and near the river (Lark), were a series of basin-shaped pits. It is possible that these pits were made by the potters in obtaining clay. Skeletons were discovered in digging for sand in an elevation of the land dividing the heath of West Stow from meadows by the river not far from the kilns described. By the right side of one of these, which lay north and south, was a patera of black ware placed edgeways. It had a potter's mark in a label, apparently an N between two dots, and from the disturbed soil near was turned up part of the rim of a mortarium with the stamp abicof with the lettering reversed. The potter's works were only half a mile from the supposed Roman station at Icklingham ^ourn. Brit. Arch. Assoc. xxxvii, 152 et seq.]. More kilns were discovered on the same site on West Stow Heath in and previous to 1S90. The fragments found about the fifth kiln consisted of portions of a shallow bowl in fine grey pottery, bowls of buff and brown ware, the rims ornamented with patterns in slip of various colours, parts of two smaller and deeper bowls of fine light red pottery with circles and lines in darker slip upon them. Also ampullae of large size in buff-coloured ware. In the kiln were found two coins, small brass of Constantius I (a.d. 305-6) [ibid. Ixvii, 94]. A vase of buff ware 5^ in. high, now in the Bury Museum, was found here, and also a bronze brooch now in the British Museum. Stowlangtoft. — In a field half a mile below the church 'was found in 1764 a pot full of Roman coins of the Lower Empire ' said to number 12,420 [Camden, Brit. (ed. Gough), ii, 81 ; Royal Soc. Letters and Papers, Decade iii, 294]. Roman coins were found near 'Barber's Lane' [O.S. 6-in. xxxiv, SE.]. Stowmarket. — A coin of the Emperor Trajan (a.d. 98-117) was found here [Proc. Suff". Arch. Inst, ii, 214]. Stratford St. Andrew. — A small urn was found here [Chart, Watling Coll., in possession of Miss Nina Layard]. Stratford St. Mary. — In this parish in 1877 was found a ridge of hard ground, apparently traces of a road, near which several cinerary urns were dug up. All were brjken. Fragments of one are in the Colchester Museum [Arch. Joum. xxxv, 82]. Between Stratford and Sproughton a wide-mouthed urn of brown ware was found [Chart, Watling Coll., in posses- sion of Miss Nina Layard]. SuDBOURNE. — A small two-handled vase, between 2 in. and 3 in. high, of buff ware, now in the British Museurti, was found here. Sudbury. — Three vases were found in 1848 ; one of red ware with a very small spout (a tetina one globular with broad neck and one handle, of grey ware, and an olla of buff ware [Davy, Suff. Coll. B.M. MSS. i, 19176 ; Suff. Illus. (Fitch Coll.), xxvi]. They are stated to have formed part of the collection of Mr. E. Acton, Grundisburgh. Roman coins were found in the neighbourhood [^Proc. Suff. Arch. Inst, i, 221 et seq.]. Sutton. — Labourers in digging for coprolites (in 1870 ?) found a vessel which is said to have contained nearly a bushel of Roman coins, belonging to the period of Constantine I (a.d. 307— 37) and for the most part of ordinary types _Arck. Journ. xxviii, 34 et seq.]. A further mention of this discovery states that a hoard of coins, third brass, in a hand-made dark brown pot, now in the Colchester Museum, was found here [Note on drawing in Chart, Watling Coll., in possession of Miss Nina Layard]. The following probably also refers to this find : — Close to Sutton Hall, ' Two urns containing Roman copper coins found 1870.' [O.S. 6-in. Ixxvii, SW.]. Tattingstone. — A globular urn of red ware covered with a buff slip and a smaller bottle-shaped vessel of buff ware, now in the Ipswich Museum, came from this place. Thorington. — In digging the foundations for a cart-shed to a new farm-house on Colonel Bence's property in this parish in 1824-5, six or seven Roman urns, much broken, were found [Davy Suff. Coll. B.M. MSS. vi, 19082, fol. 359]. Thurlow, Great. — In 1891 a Roman refuse pit was found, containing the usual pottery and household debris. The pit was only remarkable for the quantity and variety of so-called Samian ware found. It was not of the best class of paste, being somewhat soft and porous, but the exterior was good and the ornamentation elaborate. The only potter's mark that could be deciphered was of albi. There were also many large rusty nails, oyster shells, bones,