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In digging a cellar here 1772, was found the following
inscription, now in the collection of sir Ashton Lever,
bart. The stone is four feet on the longest, two feet 10
inches on the shortest side, and two feet six inches wide:
DIS MANI
BVS
L IVL APOL
LINARIS
[T]REVIE R AN
XXX EQ AI [ ]
AE AI [ ]
I [V ]
On sinking the cellars for a large house at the upper part
of Church street in this town built 1776 by the rev. Daniel
Wilson, on the site of which stood some very old houses
formerly used as the judge's lodgings, was discovered, at
about six feet below the present surface of the street,
supposed a Roman burying-place, as burnt wood, bones and
ashes, broken paterae, urns, Roman brick, gutter tiles,
coins, horns of animals, &c. were found; also, two
fragments of thick wall, at about five yards distant from
each other, in a direction from front to back, and seeming
continued under Church-street, betwixt which were several
large stones, some of them hewn. By this it may be
conjectured to have been a vault to deposit the ashes of the
dead, and to have fallen in, or been pulled down, as there
were found, within the walls, several pieces of urns, an
earthen sepulchral lamp entire (the end of the spout where
the wick came out was burnt black), broken paterae, burnt
bones, ashes, a large human skull, Roman coins, &c.
also, at the north-end a well, filled with hewn stones, but
not meddled with. There is a descent of about seventy or
eighty yards from the back part of the house, to where is
thought the river Lon anciently run, but now built upon. The
ground on the said back part was levelled a great many
yards, equal with the cellar floor; where also were found,
from three to six feet deep according to the descent, burnt
wood, bones, ashes, broken paterae, urns, other pieces of
vessels of different shapes, Roman coins, boars' tusks,
nails almost eaten with rust, pieces of lead, brass, &c.
The stratum of ashes and bones was from a foot to about five
feet thick. It no doubt runs quite under Church street, if
not farther, as in digging a drain on the opposite side of
Church street, and to the westward of Mr. Wilson's house, at
about six feet under the surface, was found the same sort of
stratum of ashes, bones, paterae, boars tusks, a small
brazen head like a dog's, which by the appearance of the
back part of it had been fixed to something; the pedestal
and feet part of a small image, which seemed to be made of
plaister of Paris or some such matter, and was thought to
have been a [ ]lar, with an inscription; pieces of glass of
a blueish-green colour, &c. One bottom of a patera had
stamped on it CADGATEMA, perhaps the maker's name. These
vessels are of a fine brown colour, far superior to the
Staffordshire brown ware, elegantly varnished or glazed,
some plain, others finely embossed with different sorts of
figures, animals, and birds. The urns are of a coarse kind,
much like the oil jars; and some of a black colour as if
burnt in the fire, some small and some very large; but none
entire, being broken into several pieces. Some have large
handles.
Nothing Roman was found above the burnt strata of ashes,
bones, &c. which it may be conjectured was the then
surface of the ground; and where the funeral rites were
performed the burnt bones and ashes of the persons might be
buried under this strata, as they were found in that
situation with the pieces of urns. The inscriptions on the
coins were none of them perfect, except one of brass, of
Marcus Aurelius; and another small one of silver, a fine
impression, and in high preservation,of Faustina his wife:
on the head side, DIVA FAUSTINA PIA; reverse, a monument,
with CONSECRATIO. The burying place is a little to the
eastward, and without the wall of the Roman fortification
where the garrison was kept, as there now remain several
vestiges of the wall, sufficient to evince that it has taken
up great part of the hill where the church and castle
stands, and part of the upper end of Church-street. About
100 yards to the eastward of Mr. Wilson's new house, on the
opposite side of Church-street, on digging a new cellar a
few years ago for Mr, Henry Baynes's new house, were found
several large hewn stones, and one about six feet under the
surface, supposed to be about three ton weight, of which
several cellar steps were made; and about a ton weight still
remains in its place, under which were found a great many
Roman coins of Domitian, Vespasian, &c. It is thought to
have been the corner stone of a temple or other public
building. There were found in Mr. Wilson's cellar, as also
in the drain in Church-street, several stones, thought to
have been pieces of small hand mill-stones, of about 13
inches diameter when whole, of a blueish-grey colour, and
exceeding hard: they are about three inches thick at the
outer edges, and not an inch in the middle [c].
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