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Cambridge AntiquaHan Society. Octavo Publications. No. XX.
I^ncieitt €amkilrg^s|ire:
OR AN ATTKMPT TO TRACE
ROMAN AND OTHER ANCIENT ROADS
THAT PASSED THROUGH
THE COUNTY OF CAMBRIDGE;
A EECOBD OF THE PLACES WHERE ROMAN COINS
AND OTHER REMAINS HAVE BEEN FOUND.
SECOND EDITION, MUCH ENLARGED.
BY
CHARLES CARDALE BABINGTON, M.A, F.R.S., F.S.A,
FELLOW OF ST JOHn's COLLEGE, AND PROFESSOR OF BOTANY
IN THE UNIVERSITY OF CAMBRIDGE.
(, UK
CAMBRIDGE:
PRINTED FOR THE CAMBRIDGE ANTIQUARIAN SOCIETY.
SOLD BY
DEIGHTON, BELL & CO.; and MACMILLAN & CO,
LONDON: GEORGE BELL & SONS.
1883.
Price Five Shillings.
OR AN ATTEMPT TO TRACE
KOMAN AND OTHER ANCIENT ROADS
THAT PASSED THROUGH
THE COUNTY OF CAMBRIDGE;
WITH
A RECORD OF THE PLACES WHERE ROMAN COINS
AND OTHER REMAINS HAVE BEEN FOUND.
SECOND EDITION, MUCH ENLARGED.
OF THE
UNIVERSITY
BY V .
CHARLES CARDALE BABINGTON, MA, F.R.S., F.SA,
FELLOW OF ST JOHN's COLLEGE, AND PROFESSOR OF BOTANY
IN THE UNIVERSITY OF CAMBRIDGE,
CAMBRIDGE:
PRINTED FOR THE CAMBRIDGE ANTIQUARIAN SOCIETY, . .
SOLD BY
DEIGHTON, BELL & CO,; and MACMILLAN & CO.
LONDON: GEORGE BELL & SONS,
1883
PRINTED BY C. J. CLAY, M.A. <fe SON,
AT THE UNIVERSITY PRESS.
PKEFACE.
It is not pretended that the subject treated of in
this Essay is exhausted, but only that all the facts
relating to it have been collected and arranged, as far
as they are known to me. I have not knowingly
neglected any source of information which is open
to me. As was remarked in the preface to the first
edition, this treatise has gradually attained its present
size from a very small original. It consisted at first
of a short account of the Roman roads which crossed
each other at Camboritijm (Cambridge) ; and did
not describe them, except through a very few miles
on each side of that place. As such it was com-
municated to the Cambridge Antiquarian Society on
March 4, 1850. But circumstances caused delay in
its publication, and it was gradually extended until
it included the whole of the known Koman remains
in the county. In this latter form it was issued by
the Society in 1853, as No. 3 of the 8vo. series of
the Puhlications of the Cambridge Aiitiquarian
^36233
IV
Society, At the request of the Society I have now
prepared a new edition, including all the additional
information obtained since 1853, and also such cor-
rections as required to be made. In doing this it
has been thought best not to alter the plan or
arrangement of the little book more than is abso-
lutely necessary. An attempt has again been made
to trace all the roads in the county which appear
to have been used in early times, pointing out
their probable origin ; to name all the places where
Roman antiquities or coins have been found, with
the authorities for them ; and to describe the ancient
ditches, camps and other earth-works.
The position of Cambridgeshire as part of the
territory of the South Gyrwas, on the frontiers of
East Anglia and Mercia, and its consequently dis-
turbed state during much of the so-called Anglo-
Saxon period, has unfortunately caused it to be very
deficient in records of those centuries, during which
we might reasonably have expected to find the ancient
roads and sites mentioned in charters : as an illus-
tration of what we have lost, reference may be made
to the proof noticed in a future page (110) that the so-
CiiUed Cnut's Dyke is older than the time of King
Cnut, derived from its mention, under another of its
names, in a charter of a date anterior to his reign.
Very small pretensions are made to originality, but
in all cases the quotations have been taken from the
works themselves. What is here collected will shew
how thoroughly this district was occupied in the
Roman period, for there is scarcely a parish in which
Roman coins have not been found, and many where
Roman occupation is shewn by the remains of their
fictile manufactures. No attempt has been made to
enumerate all the pre-Roman remains, although it is
believed that most of them are noticed ; especially
when they adjoin, or are in any way associated with
Roman remains.
The plans given in this treatise have been made
with care, and are, it is believed, accurate, but that
of Camboritum has been materially corrected for the
present edition. The modern parts of the plans of
the stations at Cambridge and Grantchester are
reduced from Baker's large map of Cambridge ; the
plan of the station at Bury is derived from an eye-
sketch and measurement made by pacing the ground ;
the villa at Comberton was carefully measured and
laid down to scale by my friend the Rev. J. J. Smith,
late Fellow of Caius College, but unfortunately the
scale is lost.
The general outline of the accompanying map, and
the positions of modern places in the county, have
been derived from Walker's Map of Cambridgeshire.
No modern villages are marked upon it which do not
tend in some way to point out the position of sites
mentioned in this treatise ; but all places are inserted,
and their names underlined, at or near to which
Roman remains or coins have been found. No modern
roads are introduced. An attempt has been made to
point out by a different mode of drawing the supposed
VI
origin, more or less certain antiquity, and the course
of the several ancient roads : the expense of colouring"
being one which it has been thought better to avoid.
Only such of the watercourses are given as appeared
to be necessary for the purpose of shewing the ancient
state of the country or the position of places.
British antiquities, such as stone implements, pal-
staves, spear-heads and swords of bronze, beads of
glass, &c., have occurred throughout the county, but
they are rarely specially noticed, unless they are in
some way associated with the Roman remains.
Cambredoe,
Jan. 1, 1883.
CONTENTS.
PAGE
Introductory Remarks 1
I. Roman Station at Cambridge, the ancient Camhoritum. — Iter V.
of Antoninus 4
II. Ancient Roads through Cambridge \\
1. The Akeman Street. — (1) Cambridge to Brancaster. — (2)
Cambridge to Cirencester. --Villa at Comberton. — Akeman
Street continued. — Baldock to ShefFord. — Akerman Street
at Ely. — Dr Mason's supposed road from Cambridge to
Verulamium. — Akeman Street between Verulamium and
Alcester i . . . ib.
2. The Via Devana. — (1) Cambridge to Colchester. — Wooden
causeway in Bridge Street, Cambridge. — Via Devana con-
tinued. — Vandlebury. — Antiquities at Linton. — (2) Cam-
bridge to Chester. — (3) Road from Red Cross to Grant-
chester and Barton. — Roman Fort at Grantchester. —
Trumpington. — Supposed continuation of this road to
Bourn 2(5
3. Other supposed Roads from Cambridge. — (I) To Chesterford.
— Camp at Granham Farm. — (2) To Braughing . .50
III. Other Ancient Roads in Cambridgeshire ... .62
4. The Erming Street ib.
5. The Icknield Way .55
6. The Ashwell Street. — Roman Cemetery and Villa at Lit-
lington. — Limbury Hill . 57
7. ThePeddarWay 64
yiii
PAGE
8. The Fen Road 68
9. The road from Ely to Spalding 73
10. The Suffolk and Sawtry Way 75
11. The Aldreth Causeway . . . . . 79
Bury near Ramsey . , ' 86
12. The Bury to Wisbech and Spalding Road . . . . 88
13. The Bullock Road 91
14. Cnut's Dyke . 95
IV. Ancient Ditches in Cambridgeshire ib.
1. The Devil's Ditch 97
2. The Fleam or Balsham Dyke 99
3. The Brent or Pampisford Ditch 100
4. The Bran or Haydon Ditch . . . . .101
[5. The Foss or Devil's Dyke in Norfolk] . . . . 104
V. The Car Dyke . . . . . . .105
VI. The old Course of the Rivers through the Fens 110
ANCIENT CAMBRIDGESHIEE.
It is remarkable that until the issue of the former edition
of this treatise no separate work had appeared concerning the
ancient state of this county. But, although no separate or
connected work on this interesting subject exists, there are
scattered materials from which a considerable amount of in-
formation may be obtained. The persons to whom we are
chiefly indebted for the knowledge that they have preserved
for us are few in number, but their remarks are of very
great value, from having been made before the inclosure of
the parishes destroyed all traces of many of the ancient roads
and other antiquities. They are :
(1) Dr William Bennet, formerly fellow of Emmanuel
College, and afterwards Bishop of Cloyne (1790). Large ex-
tracts from his manuscript account of the Roman roads are
printed in Lysonss Magna Britannia.
(2) Dr Charles Mason, formerly fellow of Trinity College,
and rector of Orwell, who made a trigonometrical survey of
the county, and many manuscript notes. These were used
by Gough in his edition of Camden's Britannia, and by
Lysons in his Magna Britannia, but the originals are not now
to be found.
B. 1
(3) We have the very learned, but fanciful works of
Stukeley, entitled Itinerarium Curiosum, 1724 ; and Medallic
History of Car ausius, 1757 — 1759.
(4) Much valuable matter and many judicious remarks
are to be found in Horsley's Britannia Romana, 1782.
(5) Dr William Warren, formerly Vice-Master of Trinity
HaU, wrote a dissertation upon the subject of the site of the
Grantacaester of Bede, which is said to have "demonstrated
the thing as amply as a matter of that sort is capable of,"
that that place is now represented by the Castle End of
Cambridge. Brydges informs us that it was the intention
of his brother, Dr R. Warren, to publish this tract which
came into his hands after the death of the Vice-Master {Re-
stituta, iv. 388). It does not appear that he carried out his
intention, nor have I succeeded in learning the fate of the
manuscript. A note in Cough's Camden led me to hope that
it might exist in the archives of the Spalding Gentleman s
Society, but it does not appear that the paper was ever com-
municated to them, for their minutes, as I learn through the
kindness of Mr Charles Green, one of the few members of that
ancient and celebrated society, merely record the reading of
a letter from the Rev. Mr Pegg, on Sept. 4, 1735, stating the
fact of Dr Warren's demonstration, but not giving its mode
of proof. As Dr Warren left some manuscripts to Trinity
Hall, concerning the antiquities of that college, I had some
faint hopes that the missing tract might be preserved amongst
them, but the Rev. W. Marsh, some time Vice-Master of that
society, had the kindness to examine the papers left by Dr
Warren, and mformed me that the treatise on Grantacaester
is not amongst them.
Having made these preliminary remarks, I proceed to the
description of the ancient roads which pass through the county;
and, as it will be most convenient to take Cambridge as a
starting-point from which to trace those that diverged from
thence, it will also be proper to occupy ourselves shortly with
Cambridge itself
I. CAMBRIDGE.
The Roman station at Cambridge was wholly situated to
the north of the river Cam, and a considerable part of three
of its sides may still be easily traced. If we commence by
entering the town from Huntingdon, and immediately turn
to the right, we soon find ourselves upon the top of the lofty
bank of a broad and deep ditch which was apparently 10
or 12 feet deep, and perhaps nearly 40 in width. A row of
cottages, called Pleasance Row, stands upon it and there is
a steep descent from their front to their back walls. Bowtell
(MS. ii. 96) yays that the width of another part of the ditch
was seen in 1802, when men were digging across a spot skirting
the east side of the station to obtain brick-earth. The place
was called Blackamore Piece, and the ditch appeared to have
been from 10 to 12 feet deep, and 39 broad. Returning to the
bank and passing in front of the Storey's Alms-houses we
arrive at the western angle of the ancient town, rounding it,
a row of cottages called Mount Pleasant is found to stand
upon the top of the rampart, which may be followed through
nearly its whole length on that south-western side of the
station. Traces of the ditch in front of this face of the for-
tification could recently be seen, but it is now filled up with
rubbish and a road formed in it. The lane called Northampton
Street, by which an entrance is obtained into the town from
the St Neots road, seems to be carried along the bottom of
the rampart, which passing to the south of St Giles's church,
defended the south-eastern side in the time of the Romans.
Perhaps there was no ditch on this side, it was sufficiently
1—2
defended by the river, a branch of which ran close to it, as
we learn from the foundation deeds of St Giles's church,
preserved in the Cottonian Library (Gough's Camden, 130).
The continuation of this river-face of the fortification is
well seen in Magdalene College garden, where a terrace-walk
is formed upon the vallum, and the garden upon what was
the bed of the river. The line of Roman fortifications may
still be traced for a short distance along the north-eastern side
of the old town between the Ely road and the Cromwellian
works near the Castle Hill. Half of the north-western side
also has been levelled. The extent of the site was measured
by Dr Stukeley, who, however, erroneously includes Pytha-
goras School, more correctly called Merton Hall, within the
walls, and found by him to be " 2500 Roman feet from east
to west, and 2000 from north to south." Even allowing for
the error of including Pythagoras School within the station,
it is very difficult to conjecture by what mode Dr Stukeley
obtained such a large extent for it. The Roman foot is
scarcely j\ of an inch shorter than the English foot, and the
real extent of the station (taking the measurements from a
recent survey) is about 1650 feet from north to south, and
1600 from east to west, measuring diagonally, as Stukeley
seems to have done ; or the north-east and south-west sides
are each about 1320 feet long, and the north-west and south-
east about 930 in length*.
Bowtell states that some remains of the Roman wall were
found in 1804 ; his words are : " On the interior side of this
fosse stood a very ancient wall, some remains whereof were
discovered in March 1804, when * improvements ' were making
thereabouts by destroying a part of the vallum towards the
north-west end, which wall abutted eastwards on the great
road, near to the turnpike-gate. [This turnpike-gate was at
* The outline of the station is shewn by the broken line on the plan,
where unfortunately the name of St Neots is misspelt
the point where the Histon road branches from that to Hunting-
don.] The materials in the foundation of this wall consisted of
flinty pebbles, fragments of Roman bricks, and ragstone so
firmly cemented that prodigious labour with the help of pick-
axes, &c. was required to separate them. A part of the wall
was consequently left undisturbed, and the fosse filled up with
earth " (Bowt. MS. ii. 98). He also states that meu diggmg at
about the middle of the east side of the station met with the
foundations of a stone building, supposed to be part of the
Decuman Gate, and that directly opposite across the station
similar foundations were seen in 1810 on occasion of the
erection of the original building of the Old, then called the
Lancastrian, Schools (ii. 99). Mr Bowtell measured one of
many Roman bricks found on the edge of the fosse when the
Gaol was built, and states it to have been 16 inches by 12
inches, and from f to If in thickness (ii. 166). In 1804 at
about 100 paces from the north-west side of the ditch, and to
the west of the turnpike-road, several antiquities were found,
such as a cornelian intaglio set in a finger-ring of silver, and
representing Mercury with the caduceus in his left and a purse
in his right hand ; also a bronze figure of Mercury, two inches
high, with wings on his bonnet and feet, and holding a purse
(Bowt. MS. ii. 175). Many Roman coins have been found near
to the castle (Gough, Camden, ii. 219) from an early period ;
and in 1802 and the seven following years, 41 of first brass,
25 of second, and 86 of third brass, also 16 of silver, besides
others of which 3 were British, were found there (Bowt. MS. ii.
191). The following list of the Emperors, &c. is derived from
Vol. VIII. of Bowtell's MS. at Downing Coll., in which the coins
are all fully described. They were; "of first brass, coins of Nero,
Trajan, Hadrian, Antoninus Pius, Marcus Aurelius, Faustina,
Commodus, Didius Julianus, Macrinus, Severus Alexander, Julia
Mammaea, Gordianus, Balbinus, Quintus Herennius Hostilianus,
Julius Philippus. Of second brass, of Germanicus, Claudius, Ves-
pasian, Trajan, Severus Alexander, Faustina, Probus, Antoninus
Pius, Philippus, Gallienus, Carausius, Constantinus Chlorus,
Valerius Severus, Decentius, Theodosius, Constans, Constantinus,
Maximianus, Magnentius, Valerius Licinianus Licinius. Of
third brass, of Claudius, Gallienus, Tacitus, Victorinus, Claudius
Gotbicus, Aurelianus, Tetricus, Carausius, Allectus, Fl. Max.
Theodora, Cams, Helena, Constantinus, Posthumus, Constantius,
Crispus, Constantinus Junior, Constans, Magnentius, Valentin-
ianus, Valens, Theodosius, Gratianus, Arcadius, Honorius.
The silver coins were of Trajan, Hadrian, Faustina, Caracalla,
Severus Alexander, Posthumus, Domitian, Gordianus, Otacilla
Severa, Philippus."
A second brass coin of Otacilla was found near the castle
in 1846 (Camh. Antiq.Soc. Cat. of Coins, 13) ; a second brass of
Vespasian at the same place and date (1. c. 7) ; and in 1852 a
first brass of Gordianus, and a second brass of Nero. The coins
have chiefly belonged to the lower empire. Indeed coins are
constantly being found on the site of Camboritum.
But such discoveries are not confined to that site, for coins
are often found in Modern Cambridge and at Barnwell. Coins
of the lower empire, as of Constantine, Licinius, and other of
the later emperors, and of the type inscribed URBS . EOMA have
been dug up in Sidney Street. At Barnwell an Antoninus Pius
with the reverse Britannia was found in 1853. Others need
not be enumerated, as enough has been stated to shew that
such coins are not uncommon.
Urns, Paterae embellished with figures, Querns, Lachry-
matories, Armillse of bronze, a variety of Amphorae and frag-
ments of green and blue glass were found near the castle in
1802—6 (Bowt. ii. 166, 167, 168), and also more recently urns
have been found there.
Stukeley thought that there was a ford at the " Great Bridge,"
near Magdalene College [Itin. Cur. 78). Mr Essex says, that
when he was superintending the excavations for the foundation
of the Great Bridge in 1754, he saw those of the ancient stone-
bridge over the river Graunt, built on piles. It consisted of two
small round arches as he learned from finding some of the
stones that formed the arch. Mr Essex does not call this
bridge Roman but only "very ancient." He says that there
was probably a paved ford there in the time of the Romans,
8
which "very plainly shewed itself in the year 1754 as a firm
pavement of pebbles." At the same time he states that several
pieces of Roman antiquities were found, one of them being a
weight, which Dr Stukeley called a representation of Carausius's
supposed Empress Oriuna (Bowt. v. 944, 945). In Lysons's
Cambridgeshire (44) Mr Essex is stated to have considered
the bridge to be Roman, and that the ford was an idea of
Stukeley 's. (See also Beliq. Gal. 53.)
Mr Benjamin Bevan, son of the engineer who superin-
tended the erection of the present Great Bridge, kindly
placed in the author's hands some of his fathers papers
relative to its erection, which took place in the year 1823.
This bridge was preceded by one of stone erected in 1754,
and which was itself the successor of a series of wooden bridges
replacing each other from a period closely succeeding if not
preceding the Norman conquest. We have seen that in 1754
Mr- Essex saw the foundations of an ancient round-arched
stone bridge when excavating for the bridge of stone erected by
him. Mr Essex's bridge was removed in 1823 to make way for
the present iron bridge. In digging down to the foundation of
the south abutment on Sept. 26, 1823, Mr A. Browne, the con-
tractor, found it to be "very different from that on the north
side ; it is one course of stone deeper than that, and the stone
and masonry is laid on two courses of bond timber (laid sicross
each other), each about GJ or 7 inches thick by 13 or 14 inches
wide. The timbers in each course are laid close to each other,
and form an uniform mass of timber about 13 inches thick
under the whole abutment....! think there are no piles under
it. It is 9 feet 11 inches from the high water-mark to the
bottom of the stone- work, and about 11 feet to the bottom ot
the lowest course of timber. The soil under the old abutment,
and where we are excavating for the new part [the new bridge
is wider than the old one], is as strong and firm a gault as I
have ever seen, without any springs of water in it, as on the
9
other side" {Letter from Mr A. Browne to B. Bevan, Esq.,
dated 26 Sept. 1823). On the 29th and 30th of September
Mr Bevan was at Cambridge, and a minute of his instructions
shews that he left the old bed of timber undisturbed, merely
extending it so as to form a foundation large enough for the
new bridge. He states that he " found the planks spiked down
very firm," and "the lower course of hewn Totternhoe stone
set on a thin course of about three inches of clay." It is not
clear to what date this timber foundation ought to be referred,
but it has appeared desirable to record its existence. Tottern-
hoe is in Bedfordshire, and not far from the Ichnield Way, and
therefore possessing an easy means of communication with
Cambridge from a very early period.
"A Lachrymatory" was found in removing the foundations
of the old Provost's Lodge of King's College, which stood
between the present front of the College and King's Parade.
A small Roman vessel was found in the excavation for a
sewer in Park Street in 1848. A patera of Samian ware, and
a lachrymatory of white clay were found at the south-west
comer of Northampton Street in 1847 (C. A. S. Museum).
It is stated in Cough's Camden that Roman bricks were to
be seen in his time in the north-west corner of St Peter's
church-wall.
In excavations made in the garden of Trinity Hall in 1880,
close to Garrett's Hostel Lane, many Roman remains were
found, at the depth of a few feet, but all broken {C. A. S. Report,
March 1, 1880). The excavators met with " (a) garden soil and
recent debris, 1 — 2 ft. ; (6) earth containing bones, pottery, &c.,
referred to a period dating back from the xvilth cent, to
earlier mediaeval times, 2| — 3J ft. ; (c) pits with black earth,
bones, pottery, &c., of Roman age, of irregular depth : some
were bottomed at about 10 ft. from the surface ; {d) low river-
terrace gravel." " In (c) there were the usual layers of oyster
shells, muscles, bones of animals which had been used for food,
10
and broken pottery. There were many fragments of a dark
ware, differing in form from the common types found at
Chesterford, and a few bits of Samian ware, one of which was
a small saucer with a simple pointed leaf-pattern around the
margin ; another was a piece of a handsome basin with a winged
figure and part of a hunting scene in relief. Also a nearly
perfect mortarium and some bits of glass were found."
That there was a tolerably large station here in the time of
the lower empire cannot be doubted ; but the name borne by it
does admit of doubt. This question was discussed at great
length by the antiquaries of the eighteenth century. It seems
most probable that it is the Camboritum of the Itineraries
which are peculiarly confused in their reference to this district.
That name is given to this station by Gale (Anton. 92), where he
derives it from " Cam, 'fluvius,' rhyd, ' vadum'." He is gene-
rally believed to be correct ; but Stukeley (Car. ii. 139) places
that station at Chesterford, and Horsley (Brit. Rom. 430) at
Icklingham. In the same manner DuROLiPONS has been placed
at Godmanchester, which is now generally allowed to be its
true site, at Ramsey, and even at Cambridge. Cambridge is
the Caer Graunt of Nennius (ed. Gale,llo), for I cannot agree
with those who place that " city " at Grantchester where, as I
hope to shew, there was only a small fort. Stukeley {Car. ii.
160, &c.) invented a city of Granta which is unknown to
antiquaries, but which he supposed to have been founded by his
favourite Emperor Carausius after the compilation of the
Itineraries. The name given by Nennius is doubtless a fact
in his favour. To conclude, in the words of Bishop Bennet
after he had carefully examined the subject, "I feel myself
incompetent to affix any certain name to the station at Cam-
bridge, although, if I was obliged to decide, I should on the
whole prefer that of Camboritum." The late Dr Guest told me
that he thought that Cambridge was derived from Cam-to-brig.
The position of this fortified town was well chosen, for it
11
is situated on one of the most commanding spots to be found in
the district. Its site is the projecting extremity of a low range
of hills, backed by a slight depression, or broad and shallow
valley. On at least two of its sides the ground fell away rather
rapidly from the foot of the ramparts, and the river defended
the fourth side. It fronts the only spot where the river could
be easily passed by the Roman way now called the Via
Devana, or indeed approached without traversing extensive
morasses. Grantchester possesses none of these advantages, nor
is it situated upon either of the great Eoman roads.
It is highly probable that the Saxon town of Grantabrigge
stood upon the same site as the Roman Camboritum, and that
it was at a late period, perhaps even after the Norman conquest,
that the principal part of the town was transferred to the
south side of the river. May not the construction of the Norman
castle have been a promoting cause of this removal of the popu-
lation, as was the case at Lincoln? The Domesday Survey
informs us that twenty-seven houses were destroyed for the
purpose of building or enlarging the castle at Cambridge, and
that what had constituted two of the wards of the town in the
time of King Edward the Confessor was then, on account of this
destruction of the houses, considered as forming only one ward
(Domesday Book, i. 189).- But it is worthy of remark that the
existence of the very ancient church of St Benedict shews that
there was a settlement in the heart of what became Cambridge,
before the time of the Normans.
Perhaps the Caer Graunt of the Britons is represented by
the village of Grantchester, to which a British trackway will be
shewn to have led, and that the Romans, finding the situation
better suited for their purposes, founded Camboritum at
Cambridge. A similar event seems to have taken place at
Norwich, where the present city represents the British town,
and Caister the Roman fort in its neighbourhood (see Wood-
ward's Norwich). This would remove much of the difficulty
12
which attends the determination of the sites of Caer Graunt,
Camhoriturriy Grantaccester and Grantebrigge ; indeed all, if
Bede is allowed to have been as misinformed concerning the
true name of the spot where St Etheldreda's coffin was found
as he was of its material [Gaii Hist. Ganteh. Acad. 8 *).
It must however be added that the Castle Hill, which is
situated within the walls of CAMBORiruM, is manifestly one of
the ancient British tumuli, or rather perhaps look-out posts, so
often found to occupy commanding sites, and to have been
fortified in after times. The lower part of the hill is natural,
but the upper half is in all probability artificial. The existence
of this tumulus and the want of any ascertained British remains
at Gran tch ester throw doubt upon the suggestion that Caer
Graunt was there ; as indeed does the name of Chesterton
being given to the parish adjoining the Roman town to the
north-east. It is remarkable that although the site of the
Castle is within the walls of Camboritum it is nevertheless
in the parish of Chesterton. Indeed the name of this village
of Chesterton has excited much curiosity. Unfortunately we
do not know when the name was first used to designate
that parish. It may have been the site of a village when
Camboritum was in ruins. The late Mr T. Wright thought
that there was an outpost there, similar to that at Grantchester,
but gives no reasons for his opinion ( Celt, Roman and Saxon,
Ed. 2, p. 134). No traces of Roman work have been noticed
at Chesterton.
It may be allowable to remark here that the difficulties
attending some of the Itineraries of Antoninus are ver}^ great,
owing probably in part to the corruption of the text, but also
^ Bede informs us that the nuns of Ely sent to Grantaceester and
obtained a fine white marble sarcophagus to use at the translation of the
remains of Etheldreda, but we learn from Caius that when the shrine was fy
removed in the reign of Henry VIII. the coflRn was found to be formed of
common stone.
13
from the circuitous course taken by them. In that route with
which we are interested, viz. the Iter v., it certainly does seem
very remarkable that the traveller should be led from London
to Colchester on his way to Lincoln ; more especially as we find
the Erming Street forming an almost direct communication
between the two places. On examining the Iter vi. we find
another route connecting the same stations of Londinum and
LiNDUM, but deviating from the direct course to about as great
a distance to the west (to Daventry) as the Iter v. does to the
east. This may perhaps be explained by supposing that these
Itineraries were not meant to give a list of the stopping-places
upon the great roads of Britain, but are derived from the note-
book of some person visiting officially the different stations, and
taking such a course as would most conveniently admit of his
doing so. Indeed there is only one place of any apparent
importance which is situated upon the southern part of the
Erming Street^ and not visited in one or the other of these
journeys, viz. Ad Fines, which is placed at Braughing in Hert-
fordshire. An anonymous writer, who has published The Roman
Roads in England, under the signature " A. H.", suggests with
much probability that in Iter v. Villa Faustina was at Wood-
bridge and IciANi at Dunwich, the travellers returning from this
latter place to Colchester and proceeding along the Via Devana
to Cambridge, which he names Camboritum. By this scheme the
number of miles between the stations accords reasonably well
with those stated in the Itineraries, and if the object of the
journey was such as I have above supposed to be probable, this
deviation will not be looked upon as unlikely to have taken
place. The late Lord Braybrooke considered IciANi to have been
at Chesterford, but does not, as far as I am informed, explain
how he made that idea accord with the Itineraries [Journ.
Archceol. Assoc, iii. 208). If the usual idea of the Itineraries
forming a kind of road-book is adopted, we find many undoubt-
edly important Roman roads unnoticed in them. For instance,
14
the Akeman Street which passes through Cambridge is omitted,
and also that part of the Via Devana which lies to the north -
west of this town.
II. ANCIENT ROADS THROUGH CAMBRIDGE.
Two great lines of road passed by or through Camboritum,
crossing each other nearly at right angles ; namely, (1) The
Akeman Street, which starting from the north coast of Norfolk
terminated by a junction with the Foss Way at Cirencester
(Corinium) ; and (2) the so-called Via Devana leading from
Colchester (CoLONiA or Camelodunum) to Chester (Deva).
(3) Some fancied roads from Cambridge are noticed after the
description of these.
The other roads that passed through any part of the county
were (4) the Erming Street, (5) the Icknield Way, (6) the
Ashwell Street, (7) the Peddar Way, (8) the Fen Road, (9)
the Ely and Spalding Way, (10) the Suffolk and Sawtry Way,
(11) the Aldreth Causeway, (12) the Bury, Wisbeach, and
Spalding Way, (13) the Bullock Way, (14) Cnut's Dyke.
1. The Akeman Street. — (1) Cambridge to Brancaster.
It left the northern angle of the station at Camboritum, and
could be traced over the open fields to King's Hedges as a
track for carts, but has recently been obliterated on the
inclosure of the parish of Chesterton. A Roman vase of reddish
ware, full of fragments of flint, was found on Blackamore Piece *
on the south side of the road close to the town, in 1862. I have
often walked along this road to King's Hedges, where there is a
large oblong camp on its southern side, which may be of Roman
origin, as Roman coins (particularly one of silver with the head
^ Blackamore Piece was named from Alderman Blackamore, who lived
in the xivth ccntur}'.
15
of Roma on one side and Castor and Pollux on horseback on the
reverse) have been found there (Gale, Anton. 92 ; Gough's
Camden, ii. 226, from the Aubrey MS.). Or, as seems more
probable. King's Hedges camp may have been made by William
I., who is believed to have occupied it during his war with the
Anglo-Saxons of the Isle of Ely. On the side of this camp
bounded by the Roman Road a large ditch was perhaps not to
be expected, but upon the other sides there must undoubtedly
have been ditches if it was of Roman origin. Scarcely any traces
of large external ditches are now to be seen ; such may, neverthe-
less, have been there ; for the embankment, which has been of
enormous width, is now so much lowered by the removal of the
soil as to be throughout the greater part of its extent only
faintly traceable. The camp is situated in a quite level country,
and is large enough to have been the site of a Roman station ;
whereas if belonging to that people it can hardly have been more
than a castrum cestivum. If a Norman work its size is not an
objection, for the armies of that period, consisting chiefly of
cavalry, required a very large space relatively to their number.
Careful measurements give the following dimensions for this
encampment :
Length parallel to the Akeman Street . . . 738 yds.
Width 295
Thickness of the embankment in the best
preserved parts 13
The corners are rectangular.
Also, at a short distance from the road on the other side
there is a camp of the form of a four-centred arch called
Arbury, which may have been used by the Romans, as seems to
be generally supposed, but from its shape is most probably of
British origin. The cord of the arch is nearly obliterated, but
as far as can be made out it was about 286 yards in length, and
is said to have been very lofty. The width of the ditch, or of
16
the bank, cannot be determined as they are nearly destroyed by
cultivation. Both these camps are in Chesterton parish,
although one side of each of them forms part of its boundary.
I do not know of any camp or fort nearer to that village, which
is about two miles distant. Coins of silver and copper of
Trajan, Hadrian, and Faustina have been found at Chesterton,
as I learned from Mr E. Litchfield ; also one of Carausius now
in Dr Churchill Babington's collection. From King's Hedges
the road still exists in the form of a country lane, in some parts
presenting the usual raised form of Roman roads, as far as
Landbeche, where a coin of Carausius, also in Dr Babington's
collection, was found in 1861, and other small coins are often
found ; and may then be faintly traced to its junction with the
Cambridge and Ely road near Denny Abbey. There it bore
slightly to the right of the present road, and crossed the Old
Ouse " at a ford near an Ozier-holt, half a mile below [Stretham]
ferry," " having crossed the road and ditch and being visible
until it dips into the fen " (Bennet in Lysonss Camh. 45) ; then
(passing by the east end of Grunty Fen) was continued to
near Ely.
Mr W. Marshall of Ely has a first brass coin of Trajan,
which was found in 1853 near to the Ely Poor-house ; and
about 30 much defaced Roman coins found near that city are in
the museum there. Amongst these occur coins of Vespasian,
Trajan, Hadrian, Antoninus Pius, Carausius and Gratian ; and
there are also two bow-shaped fibulae in the same collection
(ArcJuBol. Journ. xix. 365). Mr Marshall Fisher says (I.e.)
that there was undoubtedly a " Roman camp" at about two
miles to the S. W. of Ely, where he has collected numerous
fragments of pottery and other Roman relics. This spot is
probably situated near to Witchford, to the south of the Ely
and Witchford road and just to the north of a road running
parallel to it at about a quarter of a mile distance.
In Coveney Fen, not far from Ely, two fine bronze circu-
17
lar shields, now in the Cambridge Antiquarian Society's collec-
tion, were found in 184G. They are fully described and illus-
trated by four beautiful plates in the Quarto Publications of the
C. A. S. (Vol. II.), and their backs shown by the two cuts
here given : the curious bosses and fasteners (?) being repre-
sented of the full size, the shields themselves of one- eighth of
the true size.
From Ely the road went to Littleport, where it crossed the
Old Ouse river. Stukeley derives the name of that place from
Forth, the Welsh term for a road (Car. 148). A gold coin of
Yalerianus has been found at Littleport. The road then went to
B. 2
18
a farm called Cold Harbour, or Cob am, as Dr Bennet names it,
wbere be informs us that the track was ^' visible." This farm is
situated on the boundary of the county of Cambridge. We then
pass into Norfolk, when the road seems to have turned to the
"right in order to cross the Little Ouse river to Southery, in
and near to which place Roman vessels have been found and
also Roman coins, but mostly in very bad preservation. In
Grunty Fen, near Ely, a gold torque, weighing 4 oz. and 3
grains, and 42 inches long exclusive of the solid ends, was found
in 1845, having three bronze palstaves lying above it (C. A. S.
Museum). At a place 'called Little Shallows in Burnt Fen,
near Prickwillow, which is not far from the line of this road
after passing Ely, a bronze vessel resembling a saucepan, with
an ornamented flat handle, bearing the maker's name, BOD-
VOGENVS. F., was found in 1838 (ArchcBol. xxviii. 436, t. 25).
Also parts of two copper mirrors were discovered in Burnt
Fen, 1852. One of them seems to have been 5 inches in
19
diameter. Also, what was probably the handle of another, about
3 inches long, and beautifully moulded, was found at the same
place. Likewise a hand of brass, 2 J inches long, with the
fingers extended and in contact, but the thumb placed at right
angles to them. From the mass of metal remaining in the
palm of the hand it would appear to have supported something
which is lost. Several beads occurred at the same place ; one
of them was of blue glass, inlaid with a curious crole-pattern in
white enamel ; another was of pale glass, streaked with faint
lines from its imperfect vitrification. Part of a bronze fibula
was also obtained from the same place. These things were all
lying on the clay at the bottom of the peat, and coins of
Hadrian, Vespasian and Constantine were found with them
(Mr. I. Deck in Proc. Suff. Soc. I. 312) ; as were also a first brass
of Domitian, a first brass of Maximinus, a third brass of Con-
stantine, a small Valentinian, an Urbs Roma, a plated de-
narius of Postumus, and some others illegible.
Again returning to its old direction the road passed Hilgay
and Denver, when it was crossed by what I call the Fen Road
leading from near Peterborough to Swaffham in Norfolk, which
will be noticed further on. These roads probably crossed each
other at a spot named Stone Cross. To the south of the angle
in the lane leading towards the south from that spot there
seem to be traces of an old lane with a rather raised ridge on
its eastern side, crossing the road and passing through Riston
Park towards Hilgay Bridge. From Denver this Roman way
went by Downham, and, passing near Lynn, to Castle Rising
and Brancaster, which was probably the Brancodunum of the
Romans. An a<)count of the Roman works at the latter place
as they existed in 1846 will be found in the Archceological
Institutes Norwich Volume (p. 9.).
Although crossing the Fen country, this line of road is so
laid down as to take the utmost advantage of the " high-lands."
It first entered the fen near Denny Abbey, and escaped from it
2—2
20
asrain after crossing the Old Ouse river, at a distance of about
If mile. It next left the '* high-land" at Littleport to again
pass the Ouse, and continued in the fen for about six miles,
emerging from it after crossing the Little Ouse to Southery.
Between Southery and Hilgay there is less than half a mile of
fen, and similarly, there is about half a mile of it bounding the
Stoke river, between Hilgay and Fordham on the way to
Denver. Thus there were not more than nine miles of fen
country to be crossed by the Roman Way between Cambridge
and the high ground of Norfolk. We here see a beautiful
example of the engineering skill of the Romans. Additional
instances will be pointed out in the course of this treatise.
(2) Cambridge to Cirencester. — Returning to Cambridge
and starting in the opposite direction. The road was, in Bishop
Bennet s day, to be " easily followed along the green balks in
the fields at the back of the Colleges, until it falls into the-
common road from Cambridge to Barton at a tumulus." Un-
fortunately both balks and tumulus have been removed, so
that without his help we should have had little more than con-
jecture to lead us to the belief of its having taken this course.
The late Dr F. Thackeray informed me that about 1790 he
was taken to the point where the Huntingdon and Barton
roads now join, and shown this Roman road extending in both
directions, as it is here described. It appears to have run
parallel with the north-western side of Camboritum. In the
field opposite to Storey's Almshouses, when dug over for
"coprolites" in April and May, 1871, interments were met
with, and some Roman pottery. This spot lay in the angle
between the Akeman Street and the Via Devana. Leaving
the town at its western angle the road crossed the gardens
and the Madingley road ; and soon afterwards the long lane
leading from Burrell's Walk to the Coton footpath at about
the middle of the last field on the right-hand side, then
went close to the eastern end of the buildings of St John's
21
College farm (thus avoiding the angle of the Binn Brook)
and joined the present Barton road at a little beyond Stone
Bridsce. On arrivincj at about the third mile-stone from
Cambridge it was joined by a road from Grantch ester, which
will be noticed when describing the Via Devana. Then leav-
ing the present road it passed through Barton church-yard,
and, following a farm-track, rejoined the road to Wimpole
near Lord's Bridge, at a little beyond which its raised crest
was recently to be seen near to a tumulus called Hey Hill.
This tumulus was opened by Dr E. D. Clarke in 1817, and a
skeleton, but no antiquities, was found. It is scarcely now
distinguishable. Near to the same place a chain with collars
for conducting captives, and a double fulcrum to support a
spit, both of iron, were found, and were presented to the Fitz-
william Museum by Dr E. D. Clarke. The next year an
amphora covered by a stone, and inclosing one black and two
red terra-cotta vases, was found near to Hey Hill (Archceologia,
XIX. 56, t, 4). The Roman track then followed almost exactly
the line of the present road. "It leaves Orwell to the left,
mounts the range of hills not far from Orwell wind -mill, and
descends straight by a hedge-row into a lane," probably the
present road " crossing Lord Hardwicke's long avenue, and
presently after the turnpike-road," which now represents the
Erming Street, "having Armingford," or, as it is called on the
Ordnance map, Arrington " bridge on the left ; it then enters
the closes on the opposite side of the road, and seems to have
borne to the right towards the Roman station at Sandy"
(Lysons's Gamh. 46). On Orwell hill there is an ancient track-
way diverging from it, and keeping on the crest of the hill with
a curved course until it joins the Erming Street at about three
miles to the north of Arrington Bridge. It is called the Mare
Way. Several miles to the north of this track there is a place
named Caldecot, and to the north-east of that village, but in
the parish of Hardwick, there is an old track-way called the
22
Ptyrt Way. These three names, as is justly remarked by the
Rev. C. H. Hartshorne, are characteristic of spots occupied by
the Romans. Rev. S. S. Lewis possesses a patera of red ware
found at Orwell in 1870 and bearing the potter's mark under-
neath PATERATI • OF. At about a mile from Hey Hill, and
just below the ridge upon which the church of Combeiton
stands, the remains of a Roman Villa were discovered a few
years since in a bed of gravel.
The following is the account of this Villa as described
and shewn to me by the Rev. J. J. Smith, then of Caius
College. In February, 1842, workmen employed in digging
gravel on the low ground between Comberton Church and the
Bourn Brook, found some massive brickwork, and immediately
informed their master of it. He (Mr Wittett) caused the
23
earth to be carefully cleared away, and exposed to view the
foundations of an extensive Roman building. The plan made by
the Rev. J. J. Smith, which is here given (see woodcut) will best
convey an idea of its form. Each of the piers consisted of 10 tiles,
II inches thick, and 8 inches square. The walls were 3 feet thick,
and 3^ feet in height of them was standing. They consisted of
masses of Ketton stone, chalk-marl, and immense flints, kinds
of stone not found in that neighbourhood. The area was filled
with fragments of Roman tiles and bits of coloured stucco and
fresco-paintings, of which the colours continued quite bright.
Flue tiles still shewed the action of the fire. A small Roman
brick and two keys, fragments of glass and of coarse pottery, also
three hair-pins formed of the fossil called Belemnite, were
found. Coins had for some time past been found at Com-
berton. On the site in question two coins of Septimus Severus,
one of Vespasian, one of Gallieuus, one of Constantino, one of
Gratianus, and one of Gordianus have been picked up. On one
of the square tiles there is a remarkably distinct impression
of a dog's foot, which must have been made when the tile was
in the course of manufacture. (Similar marks have been found
at Litlington.) Also on another there is a perfect impression
of a shoe, furnished with nails like those used by country
people at the present time. A small Roman lock and two
keys, and much pale yellow pottery ornamented with red
lines, also a fragment of the top of a vessel with a well executed
female face on one side, have been found at this villa.
In the village, about IJ mile to the north of the villa,
there is a "Maze" in excellent preservation. (Mr I. Deck,
in Camb. Chron. Mar. 5, 1842.) The spot called the "Maze"
is just in front of the National School, and if it were not
known to be ancient might be passed without observation.
It is angular in its outline tending to a square, and has
from time immemorial been kept paved with pebbles by the
villagers. The ditch and bank that once bounded it are nearly
24
destroyed. Its use and date I am unable to conjecture. There
is said to be a similar " Maze " at Hilton, near Fenny Stanton,
in Huntingdonshire.
In the same newspaper (Oct. 2, 1842) some slight addi-
tional information concerning the villa is given. A hexagonal
room, with sides ten feet long and walls two feet thick, had
been excavated, and many fragments of glass, Samian pottery,
and fresco painting found in it. This room was destroyed before
Mr Smith's plan was made. A portion of the leaden pipe and
two of the hollow flue tiles through which it passed ; two other
tiles (measuring eighteen inches by eight) which formed the
piers, and two beautiful upper millstones, nineteen inches in
diameter, are in the Museum of the Cambridge Antiquarian
Society. Also in the same collection there will be found a small
earthen vessel, resembling the lid of a jar, formed of whitish
clay, and coated with a red material so as to resemble the Samian
ware.
Gibson, in his treatise upon Antoninus, expresses an opinion
that there probably was a Roman town at Comberton, indeed
he hints that the name may be derived from Camboritum,
and that place have been there situated. This idea does not
seem to be well founded, nor does he place much dependence
upon it, as he writes throughout his book as if he was con-
vinced that Camboritum was situated at or close to Cam-
bridge.
To return to the description of the Akeman Street. In the
opinion of Mr Hartshorne, with which I concur, the road did not
go to Sandy, as was supposed by Dr Bennet, but " passed through
Tadlow and Wrestlingworth," by a place called Cold Harbour
(a name nearly always associated with Roman or British tracks)
and Road Farm, both near to Biggleswade. " On the west side
of that town, just below Caldecot Green, it is called Hill Lane,
and thence it proceeds to the small circular encampment of Old
Warden. In the immediate vicinity we meet with the well-
25
known accompaniments of Roman positions, in Warden Street
and Loes Bush " (Hartshorn e, Salop. Antiqua, 249), and Ickwell
Bury. Where it may have run from thence I know not, but
another branch of it seems to have gone by Stanford and Stan-
ford Bury to Shefford (where the fine Eoman antiquities pre-
served in the Cambridge Antiquarian Society's Museum were
found) and Ampthill, to both which places it is taken by
Dr Stukeley. A very full account of the discoveries at Shefford,
made by Mr Tho. Inskip and others will be found in the
Archceol Joum. (xxxix. 275), from the pen of Mr Thompson
Watson. As these interesting remarks refer to Bedfordshire
they do not come within my plan, and the reader is referred to
the Journal named for them.
It seems probable that another track has reached Shefford
from the Erming Street at Baldock by the way of Norton Bury,
Stotfold, Etonbury, and Clifton Bury. Indeed this part of
Bedfordshire seems quite full of places of Boman origin.
Beyond Ampthill, Dr Stukeley states that it went by
" Ridgeway (so called from the road), Woburn, Little Brickhill,
Winslow and Edgecot (so called from the road, agger)\ it enters
Oxfordshire at Elia Castra, now Alcester, proceeds by Bicester,
...to Stunsfield between Burford and Lechlade to Cirencester"
{Gar. ii. 144). He states that it ^is called Akeman Street in
several parts of this course.
There is an Akerman Street in Ely, now called Egreman
Street. As I learn from the Rev. D. J. Stewart, it is so named
in an old survey of Ely, A.D. 1416 — 17. It does not seem pro-
bable that this had anything to do with the Akeman Street
which, as it probably followed the course of the Littleport Road,
must have been crossed by the Akerman Street nearly at
right angles. Mr W. Marshall of Ely informs me that the
name is written in ten different ways in old documents, viz.
Akeman, Acreman, Agremony, Egremont, Egriman, &c.
Dr Bennet says concerning a supposed branch of this road
26
that *• Dr Mason, who (being rector of Orwell) had many oppor-
tunities of examining this ground, was of opinion that traces of
another road were to be seen on the south side of the river near
this place [Orwell], which he conceived to have been thrown off
from this in some part of its course, and to have formed the
communication between Cambridge and Verulamium." Of this
supposed road nothing more is known.
It must be remarked here that there is another ancient road
also called Akernan Street, which appears to have started from
Verulamium and passed by Tring and Aylesbury to Alcester,
where it joins the line above described. The application of the
name to this road has been supposed to be an error of the
maker of an old county map, but that seems unlikely, from the
name being used, as I am informed, by the country people about
Tring.
. 2. ViaDevana*. — (1) Cambridge to Colchester. This road
left the Cambridge station by its southern gate, immediately
crossing the river close to the site of the present bridge, where
the swampy borders of the river must from the nature of the
spot have been narrow.
My friend the late Mr W. G. Ash ton informed me that in
the year 1823 (when he resided in Bridge Street) an excava-
tion was made for the formation of a great sewer, and that
the late Mr Lestourgeon showed to him a Roman causeway
in very good preservation, extending from near the Great
Bridge to the church of the Holy Sepulchre, and occupying
about half the width of the street on its eastern side. It
was at about fourteen feet below the present surface of the
ground, had black peat earth beneath it, and was covered by a
few feet of the same kind of soil. It was formed of piles
of wood driven into the ground. There were squared beams
of wood (probably oak) placed upon the piles, and thus a
* It should bo recorded hero that this name, Via Devana^ is not
ancient, but it is not known at what time it was first used.
27
continuous road was formed of such a considerable width
as to allow of its having been used as a way for horses. From
the appearance of the soil, it was supposed to have been
originally elevated a foot, or rather more, above the then
surface of the bog, and thus to have formed a dry road to the
spot where a Roman bridge is believed to have crossed the
river, and of which the remains are said, as has been already
remarked, to have been found by Mr Essex (Lysons's Camb. 44).
The wood was in a good state of preservation, but had become
black, as is usual with oak when long buried in a wet peat soil.
The fact that it was at least fourteen feet below the surface of
the present street shows that it must have been of great anti-
quity; and there being several feet of the peat above it, proves
almost conclusively that it had been disused and forgotten before
this very ancient part of Cambridge was built. As Granta-
csestir is stated by Bede (Hist. Lib. IV. c. 19) to have been
desolate (civitatulam quandam desolatam) in the seventh cen-
tury, there may have been sufficient time for the channel of the
river to become obstructed at the bridge, and the height of the
water being thus raised it would permanently cover the low
boggy ground over which this causeway extended. Peat would
then quickly form, and in a very few years bury the structure
and preserve it for discovery in future ages. There does not
seem to be any other period in the history of Cambridge at
which these changes could have taken place, without the pre-
sence of a population which was interested in the preservation
of such a work as that described ; and with such an interest it
is not credible that the timbers should have been allowed to
become totally buried, but would doubtless have been removed,
and the whole structure raised so as to admit of its being: used,
or a different kind of causeway formed to replace that which
had become useless.
It may be interesting to remark, before we proceed with the
description of the Via Devana, that somewhat similar Roman
28
structures of wood have been found in other parts of Britain.
In the year 1849, or 1850, a railway was formed along the side
of the river Mersey, at Wallasey Pool, near Birkenhead, and in
the course of the excavations required in the works for it, a
timber bridge was found, covered by . 14 feet of silt, and
9J feet below the present highest level of the tides. As there
was a solid bottom in this case, and rocky abutments, piles were
not required, and the timbers rested upon the rock and upon two
piers of masonry {Journal of the Architect Archceolog. and His-
toric Society of Chester, Pt. i. 55, and plate). Also, in Lancashire,
a wooden causeway, called the Danes' Path, formed of pairs of
piles supporting longitudinal timbers, has been traced for a mile
and a half across the mosses of Rawcliffe, Stalmine, and Pilling,
and is known to have extended for about the same distance
further to the ancient sea-beach near Scronka [Proceedings and
Papers of the Historic Society of Lancashire and Cheshire, iii.
121, and plate). What appear to be conclusive reasons are stated
for its being considered as a Roman or Bomano-British work.
A similar work to that found at Cambridge was discovered in
Kincardine Moss, in Scotland, and was undoubtedly a Roman
work (Wilson's Prehist. Annals of Scotland, 34). Unfortunately,
in the case of Cambridge, the attention of antiquaries was not
directed to the discovery, and the interesting causeway was
eithet destroyed to give place to the sewer, or again perma-
nently buried under the street at such a depth as to be inac-
cessible. Although I am myself satisfied, from the above
account of the causeway (for which I am indebted to Mr
Ashton's remembrance of what was shown and explained to him
by the late Mr Lestourgeon, who was a gentleman much in-
terested in archaeology), it is right to state that the late
Mr E. Litchfield, who also remembered these excavations, did
not believe that the piles and timbers which he saw were
Roman. For the reasons already stated I am unable to find
any other period in the history of Cambridge to which to refer
29
them. It is very unfortunate that the work was not examined
by some experienced antiquary.
The road nearly followed the course of the modern streets
of Cambridge, as far as the church of St Andrew the Great,
which Dr Bennet states to be placed upon it. From thence it
kept to the left of the present Hills' Road, along the highest
part of the land between the fens of Cherry Hinton and Trum-
pington. Traces of it were probably found- in the form of
a ridge of gravel, at the distance of three or four yards from
that road, when the ground was trenched to form a plantation
at the border of the Botanic Garden property adjoining the
Hills' Road. This is, however, uncertain, as the subsoil of
all that district is gravel, and the appearances may have been
natural. Traces of it are much more certainly to be found at
a little to the east of the Great Tithe Farm, where its ridge
may still be seen crossing the private road to the farm, and in
the next and one succeeding hedge as you proceed along its
course towards the south. These traces, although now very
faint, are interesting as confirmatory of Dr Bonnet's statement,
that it took this course ; a statement made before the enclosure
and drainage of the lands, and therefore at a time when its
ridge was doubtless to be easily observed. We next see it
near Red Cross Farm, where it changed its direction so as
to ascend the hill along the course of Worts' Causeway. Its
ridge may be observed crossing the private road at a few
yards to the north-east of the farm-house, in both the neigh-
bouring hedges, and (looking back upon our course) across
the whole width of the adjoining field, and in the hedge be-
yond it ; bearing, in such a direction as to appear as if its
destination was Grantchester, to which place a road, to be
described presently, branched off here. It is probable that
the curve in the Via Devana and the junction of these two
ancient tracks took place at, or very near to, this latter hedge ;
the line bearing from that point, in one direction straight to
30
Camboritum, and in the other nearly following the present
course of the Worts' Causeway in an easterly direction, until it
attained the top of the hill, where it regains its original nearly
south-east course. . The reason for this remarkable deviation
from the usual direct line of the Eoman roads is to be found
in the formerly impassable character of Hinton Moor, which
would have been encountered if it had been continued in a
straight line to Cambridge. The only mode of reaching that
place, without crossing deep morasses, being the very course
which we have found that it followed, namely, along the
narrow but slightly elevated ridge that separates Hinton
Moor from the marshy track" extending from Shelford to the
river Cam, and along which the Vicar's Brook flows, which
supplies the conduits in Cambridge with water. The road
only deviates just sufficiently to avoid the wet country which
near Red Cross extended a little to the west of the Worts'
Causeway.
It was supposed, says Horsley {Brit Rom. 431), that a
road from Chesterton, which must have crossed the river near
to the present railway bridge, and kept to the east of Cold-
ham's Common, joined the Via Devana at the top of the hill
where we have now arrived; but no trace of such a track
having, it is believed, ever been observed, it is unnecessary to
notice it further.
At this point, where the road returns to its original
direction, there are the remains of two tumuli, called the Two-
penny Loaves, one of which was opened in 1778, and seven
skeletons were found at its bottom ; six of them were laid
close together and parallel, with their heads pointing due
north, the other lay with its head directed due west, and
its feet next the side of the nearest of the six (Nichols's
Lit. Artec, viii. 631). At Fulbourn, which lies at a short
distance to the north-east of this point, various British remains ^
liave been found, such as a leaf-shaped sword of bronze, a
31
spear-head of that metal, and others (Archceol. xix. 56, t. 4).
Mr Litchfield had a bronze Roman key found at Fulbourn.
Fulbourn has also produced two other leaf-shaped swords ; and
the late Lord Braybrooke remarked at the meeting of the
Archaeological Institute at Cambridge that a man named
Richard Manning told him of "a square brick grave in which
were some glass and pottery vessels which he saw broken by
the workmen."
Near Eulbourn some remarkable discoveries were made in
1874. Mr James Carter thus describes them in the Gamhridge
Chronicle (May 10, 1874). He says: "In making a cutting
through some rising ground, about half a mile on the Cam-
bridge side of the Fulbourn Railway Station, the workmen
came upon three pits or wells sunk in the chalk. They were
about three feet from each other and situated upon the summit
of the low hill through which the cutting was made. The
largest of them, namely that nearest to the Fulbourn Station,
was a circular shaft sunk about ten feet in the chalk. It was
carefully built up, and the inside smooth, and coated with a
layer of hard cement about three inches thick. There w^as
then a layer of coarse concrete about ten inches in thickness,
which was reddened by the action of fire. At about six feet
from the top the shaft was abruptly reduced in diameter from
9 ft. 3 in. to 6 ft. 3 in., thus forming a set-off 20 in. wide. It
was then carried down to a further depth of nearly four feet in
the chalk. The inner surface of the lower and narrower portion
was blackened, as if by the combustion of wood and other
vegetable substances, and contained masses of black car-
bonaceous matter. The workmen stated that at the bottom
they found some slabs leaning obliquely against the sides, so as
to construct a sort of flue for draught : but I saw nothing of
this.
" The upper and wider portion of the pit was filled partly
by the surface soil, and below that there was a layer two to three
32
feet thick of a very soft calcareous deposit, which tlie workmen
called 'butter.' The 'butter' was so soft that it could readily
be rubbed into a paste between the fingers. I analysed this
substance and found it to be composed of slaked lime, containing
a considerable quantity of water. By exposure to the air it
became quite dry and hard. Below and by the sides of this
soft layer of lime was a layer of vesicular, spongy, calcareous
matter, very light and composed of pure chalk, i.e. carbonate of
lime. I imagine that this layer was formed by water filtered
through the lime, of which it dissolved a considerable quantity,
and subsequently deposited it, as evaporation took place, upon
plants lining the shaft. It had not the least appearance of
being produced by burning.
"At the junction of the wide and narrow parts of the shaft
there was a round-headed opening leading into a second ex-
cavation by a passage 2 ft. 6 in. in length. This second pit was
simply sunk in the hard chalk and not built up like the other
pit. It was of equal diameter throughout; not narrowed in
the lower part." I could not detect any traces of the action of
fire, except that the sides of the opening between the shafts
were burned and reddened. The side of this second shaft
opposite to the opening into the first was perforated by another
similar opening, which led into a third opening, which ap-
peared not to have been circular, but a cutting with parallel
sides, the floor of which inclined upwards, and, as the workmen
supposed, had led to the surface.
" It is quite evident that the largest and deepest of these pits
was used as a kiln of some kind : it could hardly have been for
burning bricks or pottery; nor could I detect the slightest
evidence that it had been used for cremation, as was suggested.
The presence of a quantity of slaked lime seems to prove that
it was used as a limekiln. I suppose that the chalk was put
into the upper and wider part of the kiln, and the fuel into the
narrower and lower part. The opening would admit of the
33
reraova) of the lime and the introduction of fuel ; but it is not
very evident what can have been the use of the second pit.
" We have no very positive evidence of the age of these pits,
but as far as an opinion can be formed from the objects found
in the surface soil by which they were partially filled they may
perhaps be regarded as Roman. I saw no object which had
been found in the lower part of the shafts, but the soil which
filled the upper part contained broken pottery of both red and
black Roman ware, and also human and other bones, such as
ox, horse, and a horned sheep's. A good many human skeletons,
perhaps as many as thirty, were discovered in making the
cutting of about half a mile in length between the station and
the pits. The soil also was full of fragments of pottery and
bones of animals, all of very ancient date. The human teeth
were ground down as if by the mastication of coarsely ground
corn." Of course no remnant of this curious place remains.
To return to the road : at a short distance to the west of
the point at which we have arrived there is, upon the top of
Gogmagog hill, a large rudely circular camp, called Vandlebury.
It is 246 paces in diameter, has three ramparts and two ditches
between them (Bowtell, MS. vii. 2641) and encloses about 13^
acres. It was probably a work of the Britons, but is shown, by
the discovery of coins, to have been occupied by the Romans.
The coins were found in 1685, in digging the foundations of the
house now belonging to the Duke of Leeds, which stands within
the camp. They were of Valentinian I. and Valens ; a knuckle-
ring and coins of Trajan and Antoninus Pius were afterwards
picked up ; in 1730, several large brass coins and a silver ring;
and in 1752, a small brass coin of Nero (Gough's Camden, ii.
138; Bihl. Topog. Brit. m. 15; Gale, Anton. 93). A coin of
Cunobeline has also been found there (Bowtell MS. ii. 96).
The hills surrounding this place are now called Gogmagog,
which is perhaps a corruption of Hogmagog, itself believed
by Gale to have come from " Hoog macht, quod altum robur
B. ' 3
34
significat et naturae loci satis congruit." Vandlebury may
have been the chief fort of the Vandals who were placed in
Cambridgeshire by Probus and removed by Belisarius ; but is
probably much older than their time.
The road is now plainly distinguishable for many miles,
with its crest highly raised, and is still used. It crossed the
Icknield Way, which is represented by the road from Ches-
terford to Newmarket, at Worsted Lodge, passed about a
mile to the south of Balsham, a short distance to the north
of Horseheath Lodge, and entered Suffolk near Withersfield.
In this part it is fully forty feet wide. Its course from
thence to Colchester, by Haverhill and Halsted, it is unneces-
sary to notice. In Cambridgeshire this part of the road
goes by the name of Woolstreet, or Worsted. Near Vandle-
bury and between the Woolstreet and Fleam Dyke there
are many tumuli. At Barham Hall, near Linton, about two
miles to the south of the road, there are some very unin-
telligible intrenchments. They are situated in the first and
second fields, beyond the inclosures of the Hall, on the way to
Bartlow, between that road and the river Bourn, and have
been supposed to be the remains of a camp. There are con-
siderable traces of a scarped slope, but no ditch, upon the
north-west and south-west sides of a large space ; and near to
the entrance of the first field there is a deep trench, which
does not seem to liave any connexion with the supposed
camp.
In the parish of West Wickham several Roman coins were
found in 18G3, chiefly of the lower empire, those of Constan-
tine, Tacitus and Claudius Gothicus were deciphered. Roman
coins have also been found at Linton, near which place at
Little Linton Roman pottery has occurred, as we learn from
Lord Braybrooke. He has also a coin of Theodosius from
Castle Camps, and a bronze ladle from Shudy Camps. These, >^
and all the other antiquities mentioned as found by him, are
35
probably still preserved in the museum which he formed at
Audley End.
On the opposite side of the brook called the Bourn and close
to it, in the parish of Hadstock but adjoining the town of Linton,
there was a Roman villa, which was exhumed by the late Lord
Braybrooke in 1850 (for an account of it see Archceol Joum. viii.
27). Gough saw the bronze bust of a satyr found at Linton
(Gough's Camden, ii. 138). In 1832 a boy found a vase con-
taining many silver Roman coins in a field in the parish of
Horseheath, belonging to S. Batson, Esq. Amongst them there
were those of Nero, Vespasian, Titus, Domitian, Nerva, Trajan,
Hadrian, the two Antonines, Faustina, and L. iElius Verus
{Camb. Chron. Oct. 5th, 1832, and Jan. 25th, 1833). At Bart-
low, which is about two miles from the road, are the well-known
Bartlow Hills, the examination of which attracted so much
attention between forty and fifty years since {Archceol. xxv.
1, t. 1 — 3, and xxvi. 300, t. 31 — 35). A third brass coin of
Valens was found there [Archceol. xxvi. 463). The hills are
formed of a succession of very thin layers of mould and chalk
regularly alternating and horizontal. Mr I. Deck gave an
account of the opening of one of them, in the Cambridge
Chronicle (May 5, 1838), and of another afterwards {Ibid.
May 2, 1840). But these places are not in Cambridgeshire.
^ (2) Cambridge to Chester. Returning to Cambridge and
proceeding in the opposite direction, the Via Devana passed
out at the north-western gate of the station, just to the west of
the present junction of the Huntingdon and Histon roads,
and kept to the left of the line of the existing road, but
" passed through the fields of the ancient hamlet called How's
House, where a barrow containing several Roman coins was
removed in making the present road " (Lysons's Camb. 44) ;
by Lolworth hedges and Fenstanton to Godmanchester on
its way to Leicester and Chester. In a field between Gravel
Hill Farm and the Huntingdon road some large and small
3—2
Roman funereal vases, broken pieces of Samian ware, and a
few bits of Roman pottery (of the smoky kind) were found in
1861, together with burned bones. These were apparently by
the side of the " Via Devana." By the course of the same
road two large stone coffins were found in 1862. They had
their ends towards the road, and were sunk a little below the
surface soil. The very perfect skeleton of a female was found in
one of them quite undisturbed, and the stone coffin was unbroken.
At the feet of this skeleton there were several glass bottle-shaped
vessels (see cuts on this and the following page) and a small vase
of the Roman period ; also an amulet of jet and the remains of
two jet pins. The other coffin was larger and had been mended
with two iron clamps (showing the value of the stone coffins at
that tinae and place) : it contained nothing except the remains
of the skeleton much disturbed, by water having obtained access
to the coffin (Camh. Antiq. Comm. ii. 289).
Two Roman-British urns of the ordinary coarse black
pottery, and one of fine yellow ware with a narrow neck were
found near the Observatory in May, 1878.
37
In 1881, during some alterations of the ground near Girton
College, an extensive Anglo-Saxon cemetery was discovered.
It seems to have been the quiet burial place of a peaceable
time, which was probably of rather long continuance. Proof
was found of interment by cremation and by inhumation.
Many vases and ornaments such as fibulae and beads were
found.
It is not ray intention to give any account of the Anglo-
Saxon remains found here, but only of those of the Roman period.
The former will, it is expected, be described in detail by Mr
38
Jenkinson in the Coinm. of the Camb. Antiq. Society^ and do
not fall within the scope of this treatise. " The Roman remains
consisted principally of the contents of two square wooden
boxes, the form of which was clearly traced by the nails and
the pieces of wood adhering to them. Each contained a glass
cinerary vessel : of these one was square, the other hexagonal.
Each contained an iron lamp with hooked rod for suspension.
and other vessels of glass and of Samian and other ware. The
marks on the Samian were all of known potters (PAVLLI.M.,
PAVLi-F- (sic), BORILLI-M., PATERATi • OF • ) ; a glass bottle bore
on its flat bottom the circular legend, c • LVCRETI • FESTIVI, and
an undecipherable mark in the centre." A glass patera showed*^
impressed on the under side the figure of a pelican. (Shown •
39
on the annexed cut below; as also are tlie glass vessels found
here ; all represented of ^th of the real size.) " There was
also what appears to have been a large circular woodfen object
covered with thin bronze, along one side of which were rings
and large hollow bosses of the same metal " {Jenkinsons MS.).
It is a curious fact that the successors of the Romans appear to
have met with some of their fictile ware, and used it again to
preserve the ashes of their own dead, for decidedly Roman vases
were found with the Anglo-Saxon interments.
Further researches led to the discovery of two ancient
rubbish pits which contained Anglo-Saxon remains at the top,
below them fragments of Roman pottery, lower down a fine
lion's head represented of Jth the true size on the next page.
It is formed of Ketton stone, and, although it has lost its
nose and is otherwise rather injured, shows good workmanship.
The torso of a military figure which had been about four
feet high was found there. "The broad collar, the belt, the
40
close fitting coat, apparently of metal, and a short kilt-like
garment peeping from under it are clearly visible. One of its
arms had been raised'' {Camh. Chro7i. Mscy 13, 1882).
But where did these ancient people dwell ? I can form no
conjecture concerning the Anglo-Saxon village except that it
was not very near to the spot selected for their graves. The
Anglo-Saxon people seem to have usually avoided the contiguity
of the ancient roads.
Probably the Romans resided at or near to the spot which
has from time immemorial been known as How-House, where a
small Roman outpost from Camboritum was probably placed.
See Camb. Univ. Reporter, No. 348 (1881), 5.96.
At about three miles from Cambridge two stones were
found in 1812, which are now preserved under the portico of »
the Fitzwilliam Museum : they are flattened with the angles
rounded. Their measurements are :
41
No. 1.
No. 2.
Height 3 6
Girth 3 4i
Width 1
Thickness G
ft. in.
Height 2 8
Girth 3 3
Width 1 3
Thickness 6
From their great difference in shape it is hardly possible
that they can have had any connection with each other, but
are probably fragments of two monumental stones which stood
contiguously by the side of the Via Devana. They were
42
(Oentlem. Mag. Ixxxiii. Pt. 1, 524), found by Mr Henry Lloyd
Biden, at that time a student of Trinity Hall, projecting from a
bank near the present high road, at a distance of nearly three
miles from Cambridge, in October, 1812. The inscriptions are
rather difficult to understand. The surface of the stones is
very rough but the letters are deeply cut and easy to see in
certain lights. On No. 1, the lines all commence near the
angle of the stone, upon one of its broader side.^, and the first
letters of each line range vertically. The first and third lines
extend beyond the front face of the block, and are continued
round the angle on the lateral face. The Inscription appears
to be perfect, and was erected in honour of Constantinus Pius
by the Fifth Legion (?) in the reign of his father Constantine the
Great. This tends to prove that at least some part of the Fifth
Legion was stationed at Camboritum at that period. No. 2 is
imperfect owing to the upper part of the stone being lost.
The following are accurate
copies
of the Inscriptions :
No. 1.
No. 2.
IMPCAE
LISSI
FLAVI
MVS
VLEG
CAESAR
CONST
ANTI
NOPIO
•
NOBCA
. 8
There has been considerable discussion concerning No. 1, for
it is not known that the Leg. V., or any part of it ever was in
Britain. But I am not aware that any other explanation of the
inscription has been given; but the third line may be read ULEC.
At Box worth, about eight miles from Cambridge, a gold
coin of Vespasian was found in 1848 {Camb. Chron. Nov. 4,
43
1848). At Madingley at no great distance to the south of this
road a third brass coin of Valentinian was found in 1855.
(3) Grantchester and Barton Road. — It has been already
stated that a road branched off from the Via Devana at Red
Cross, and went to Grantchester. Of this we should have
known nothing without the help of Bishop Bennet, who has
given us the following account of it (Lysons's Camb. 45). He
says that the Via Devana had the appearance of throwing off
a branch to Grantchester, which " seems to descend imme-
diately into Shelford Fen, where it disappears for a short time ;
but as the ground rises on the west side of the fen, the road
appears in its old line rising with it ; it then crosses the great
London road, just to the north of the village of Trumpington,"
where it may still (1882) be just traced in the field to the leff
of the road to Trumpington as a raised bank. It then " goes
straight down a green balk in the corn-field opposite, which soon
becomes an old lane leading into Trumpington Fen, nearly
opposite Grantchester Church : in the fen it is again lost, as
these ancient roads often are, in low marshy ground; but on
crossing the river and coming again on the line of the road, it is
found keeping its course as before in an old lane which passes
through the village of Grantchester, becomes a more frequented
way, leading to Barton, where it falls into the Roman way from
Cambridge,'' as is stated above. The bishop adds : " It must
not be concealed, however, that some antiquarians of the present
day are not convinced of the existence of this vicinal way [as a
Roman road] ; and though they confess it to have all the marks
of a trackway used in ancient times, are inclined to account for
these appearances by the supposition that when the Roman
bridge and causeway [at Cambridge] were destroyed by the
barbarians, travellers naturally looked on each side of the ruined
station for the nearest fords, and crossed the Cam at Grant-
chester and Chesterton, as they did the Ouse at Offord and
Hemingford." But as signs of a raised road are to be seen
44
at Trumpington, I think that that idea is unfounded. Unfor-
tunately an interval of seventy or eighty years has rendered it im-
possible to trace much of this road. Between Red Cross and the
river at Grantchester all is either nearly destroyed by cultivation
or swallowed up in the former fens, now drained and cultivated ;
during that part of its course, therefore, we must be satisfied
with the fact, that in Dr Bennet's days there was manifestly an
ancient road passing in that direction. On the Grantchester
side of the river it fortunately happens that two fields have not
been subjected to the plough, and there the road may still be
traced, not however, as stated by Dr Bennet " in an old lane,"
but proceeding from a ford as a hollowed way in a direct line
across the fields to the junction, in the village, of the present
roads from Cambridge and Barton, along the latter of which it
went nearly but not quite to the end of the village ; and then, con-
tinuing the same straight course, it proceeded along a bridle-track
direct to Barton. As the whole of the latter part of this course is
still used as a road, none of the ancient work is to be seen (indeed
in similar soils to that of this part of the county, the ancient
tracks are usually found to have lost their original form, and not
to differ in appearance from common field roads); but it is
exactly the line described in the above extract. The idea that
the course described is the true one, is rendered more probable
by the discovery of a square fort adjoining the side of it at
Grantchester.
This Roman fort (see opposite) is situated at a short distance
from the river, and considerably raised above it so as to com-
mand the ford. It is at the southern end of the large field in
which the foot-path from Cambridge forks, and the sunken road
from it to the river is crossed by the continuation of the path
that leads to the church soon after it enters the next field. The
fort can never have had much strength, but was doubtless
sufficient to protect the detachment which probably was sta-
tioned here to defend the only ford which at that time seems
45
46
likely to have existed for many miles above Cambridge, until
assistance could be obtained from that large town not more
than three miles distant. Only a small part of the inclosure is
observable ; the whole of two of the sides and a portion of each
of the others being obliterated by the roads arid buildings of the
modern village. The nortb-eastern angle is very distinct, and
what is probably the greater part of the north side is well pre-
served. That side was defended by two ditches, with a low flat
ridge resembling a raised road between them. There is no
bank on the outer side, but the outer ditch is now about 3
feet deep; the central ridge then rises a little more than 1
foot, and is 11 feet broad ; then succeeds the other ditch,
on the inner side of which the bank is 4 feet high, thus
raising the rampart about a foot above the general level of the
field. The whole width of this system of ditches is 40 feet,
and the existino^ lenf^th of this side of the fort is 324 feet.
The eastern side remains tolerably perfect to the extent of
189 feet, and was defended by a ditch of about 4 feet in
depth, but of which the width cannot be ascertained, owing to
the presence of a hedge and bank. At a distance of 187 feet
from this eastern side, and parallel to it, there are faint traces
of a road or street crossing the station, and slightly sunk below
the general level. It communicates with the northern boundary
ditch, and is probably the road so commonly found to pass
through the centre of a Roman camp; of the other which
generally crosses it at right angles there is no trace. If this
idea is correct, we may conjecture that the fort was 127 yards
long. Of its breadth we have no such means of judging, but it
appears to be probable, from the nature of the ground, that it
was about 75 yards.
It may be justly asked, how do you know that this was a
Roman fort ? To which it can only be answered, that there is
nothing more than great probability in favour of that opinion ;
and that it greatly resembles other forts constructed by that
47
people. I am glad to be able to strengthen my own opinion
on the matter by adding that of my friend the late Mr A. Taylor,
an antiquary whose attention was especially directed to the
roads and stations of the Romans in Britain, and whom I had
the pleasure of conducting to Grantchester in search of a
Roman station and road. He remarked upon seeing these
banks that it was undoubtedly a Roman work.
To return to the road. In the extract from Dr Bennet's
sketch given above, the road to this fort from Red Cross has
been traced to the banks of the river, and it is also stated that
it did not follow the course from that point laid down by him
until it reached the middle of the village at the junction of the
Cambridge and Barton roads. As the north-western angle of
the fort was situated almost exactly at the junction of the
above-mentioned modern roads, and the track from thence to
Barton has been already described, we may now turn back
from that point and connect it with the bishop's line at the
river. It is certainly curious to find that this well-preserved
part of the road is not elevated, as is usual with Roman roads,
but appears as a slight trench, continuing nearly but not quite
in a straight line the trenches which form the northern side
of the fort. It may be very clearly traced through the in-
terval between the fort and the river, to which it attains by
a gradual slope formed by a rather deep cutting in the some-
wha.t abrupt bank overhanging the stream. On the opposite
side of the river, in Trumpington Fen, there is a gap in the
bank forming a gradual descent to the water, which is now
used by cattle as a watering-place, and is the only break in
that bank- for a very considerable distance. Shall I be
considered as too bold if I state my strong suspicion that it is
a trace of the ancient ford ? The modem embankment further
back from the stream has effectually obliterated the road
almost as soon as it attained the level of the adjoining land.
I cannot pretend to account for the fact of this road appearing
48
as a trench, but it may be remarked, that British roads are
often, perhaps always, sunk below the general level of the
country, and have usually a slight bank on each side ; and that
this road may have been found in existence by the Romans
and, as being a track of very little consequence after the
foundation of Camboritum, have been left by them in its
original state, but the small fort thrown up as a shelter for the
detachment placed there to command this important ford. Roman
coins have occasionally been found at Grantchester\ but I have
seen only two of them belonging to the Emperors Valen-
tinianus and Constantinus Junior.
At Dam Hill (or Gravel Hill as otherwise named), a place
where gravel was formerly obtained in the parish of Trumpington,
but situated at about a quarter of a mile back from the bridge
over Vicar's Brook, on the road from Cambridge, many Roman
urns have been found in what appears to have been an ex-
tensive cemetery. It is recorded in Dr Warren's MSS. now in
the possession of Trinity Hall, that about the year 1711 several
paterae, urns, &c. were found in digging gravel at that place.
The potter's marks on the paterae were, OF -LICINI., or. mrrai.,
MASCLERVS, and DAMONI. (Bowt. MS. ii. 179) ; also a large urn
with bones in 1733. A coin of Trajan has been found there
(Ihid. 189). Dr Mason records (Gough's Camden, ii. 131) the
discovery of many curious paterse of fine red earth : one large
vase three feet long, brass lagenae, a brass dish embossed, the
handle of a sacrificial knife, the brasses of a pugillaris or table-
book, some large bones and Roman coins. They are preserved
in the Library of Trinity College. Dr Stukeley possessed in
1751 a Roman cup and saucer entire of fine red earth, which
'were dug up at Trumpington (Weld's Hist of Royal Society, i.
527). Three urns of rude workmanship found in that parish,
^ Grantchester bore the name Grenteset at an early period. See
Inquis. Com. Cantdbrig. 70.
«-
49
and which were formerly in the possession of the Rev. J. Hail-
stone, late vicar, are in the Cambridge Antiquarian Museum.
Not far from the ancient line of road from Grantchester to
Red Cross a funereal vase was found in 1879, and exhibited at
the meeting of the Cambridge Antiquarian Society on May 13
and March 1, 1880. Some other Roman apparently sepulchral
remains found at about the same spot were also exhibited {Umv.
Reporter, 1880, p. 356), amongst them a cinerary urn of about
12 in. in height.
The late Mr Alex. Watford, who was employed, as he
stated to the Rev. J. J. Smith, to survey at least four-fifths of
the parishes near Cambridge, considered that there was a road
which would continue this track from Barton by Toft to join
the Erming Street at Bourn. This would pass by Comberton
church, and therefore just above the Roman villa already
mentioned, and by Toft church, near which remains were found
at a place called Priory Field, not far from the brook, in
December 1851, by some labourers digging gravel. At about
three feet below the surface they found seven skeletons. Six of
the bodies had been placed side by side with their feet towards
the west, and the seventh lay across their legs. Fragments of
" Roman pottery, a portion of a lamp and paterae " were found
close by the skeletons {Camh. Chron. Dec. 27, 1851). An
instance of a nearly similar arrangement of seven bodies has
been already mentioned (p. 30). Then this supposed road would
pass by a place called Kingston Stones to Bourn, where two urns
called Roman, and half a quern formed of pudding-stone, were
found in 1813 (Aixhceol. xviii. 435). It is there stated that
no trace of a Roman road or station was known to be near to
them. If there was a road following this course, as is not
improbable, it was most likely of British origin.
Mr Essex remarked that the road from Red Cross Farm
was continued '' to the north of Grantchester, near which it
makes part of a ridgeway leading towards Hardwick, and is
B. 4
50
called Deadman's Way. John Leat, a labourer, being em-
ployed 17 years ago [that is before 1773, or in 1756] in digging
a trench in a field laying on the south side of this way, having
dug about three feet below the surface, found a paved way,
about 1 ft. 6 in. thick, composed of pebbles laid in gravel, on
the side of which was some brickwork ; the bricks, according to
his description, were about the thickness of a common brick,
but much longer and wider" (Essex's MS. note book. Brit
Mus. Add. MSS. 6768, p. 243). My own observation leads me
to believe that there was such a track, and it is difficult to see
Ijy ■ whom it could have been made since the time of the
Romans.
3. Other supposed Roads from Cambridge. Having
concluded the account of the two great lines of communication
passing through Cambridge, I might proceed to describe
the others which are intended to be described in this treatise ;
but it is desirable first to mention two lines which have
been supposed to have started from that town. (a) Lord
Braybrooke thought that the roads leading from the important
station at Chesterford to Cambridge, although not very evident,
may be made out, but not with absolute certainty. The prin-
cipal one probably followed the modern way to Ickleton and
Duxford (where there is a very Roman-looking branch west-
ward to Triplow^), and proceeded behind Whittlesford towards
Cambridge. Another, starting from the north side (joined 'at
Stump-cross by a short track from Ickleton, a continuation
apparently of the Ashwell Street), ran by Bournbridge to the
Fleam Dyke. The remainder of the remarks upon the roads
near Chesterford refer to those in Essex (see Archosol. Jourrial
XI. 209).
(b) But those about which there is greater probability are
(1) Cambridge to Chesterford. Dr Bennet states his 'belief
that there was a road from Cambridge to Chesterford, pro- "
ceeding nearly on the line of the present road by Great
51
Shelford and Sawston ; but no trace of it has been observed.
At Shelford, and therefore close by the side of this supposed
road, there is a fine lectangular camp at a spot now called
Granham's Farm. It is 400 yards long from east to west,
and rather more than IGO from north to south. The bank
is very lofty and perfect throughout its eastern half, but
has been levelled in the other part, owing to the house and
farm premises being within the camp. The ditch, of great
breadth, may be traced throughout a much greater portion of
its extent, and is wet, part being now choked with bog and
part full of water. Unfortunately the tenant has removed
much of these fine works recently.
On the top of Huckeridge Hill, near Sawston, some men
removing gravel in Aug. 1816, found a skeleton at 3 feet
below the surface. At the feet of the skeleton there were
placed two vessels of bronze, the larger 15 inches across, and
having a flat rim ornamented with a row of bosses all round.
They found also some black coarse earthenware ; an iron sword
2 ft. 7 J in. long ; the iron umbo of a shield ; and a bronze
fibula formed like a double-headed snake. The remains were
purchased by Dr E. D. Clarke for the University [Archceol. xviii.
340, t. 24 and 25). It is probable that they are Saxon or
Danish remains, but I can learn nothing concerning them.
(2) Cambridge to BraugJiing. Dr Stukeley mentions a
road leading from Cambridge to Braughing, where it fell into
the Erming Street. He says that he "could discern many
traces of it in the present road, as particularly beyond Barley,"
and he observed "several milestones, particularly a little on
this side Hare Street." Dr Bennet takes no notice of this line,
although he quotes Stukeley's Medallic History of Garausius,
from which (ii. 144) the above extract is taken. I think that
the real road commenced at Chesterford passing by Strethall,
Littlebury Green, also called Stretley, Leebury, Pond Street,
and then through a country with which I am totally un-
4—2
52
acquainted, led to Hare Street and Braughing. Still it must be
remembered that extensive traces of ancient occupation were
found in 1871, in a field between Hauxton Mill and the road
jbo Hauxton. Only a few decidedly Roman tiles with flanges
were found, and two slabs of freestone which seem to have
formed part of a floor. It is quite impossible to say what
Stukeley's '* milestones " may have been. No traces of them
now exist.
III. OTHER ANCIENT ROADS IN CAMBRIDGE-
SHIRE.
Before commencing the description of the Ermmg and
Ickmeld Ways I would refer to the admirable paper by the
lamented Dr Guest, On the Four Roman Ways {Archceol.
Journ. xiv. 99), where the whole subject is exhaustively dis-
cussed, and our roads shown to be the true Erming and Icknield
Ways or Streets.
4. The Erming Street. Dr Guest justly remarks that
the southern part of this road was probably of British formation ;
for neither are there many Roman remains on its course, nor is
it noticed in the 'Iters" of Antoninus. It is therefore ex-
ceedingly improbable that a paved road existed leading directly
from London to Lincoln. Other routes are pointed out by
Antoninus. But we have only to consider its course through
Cambridgeshire, where it is now exactly followed by a turnpike
road. Starting from London and pas?ing Cheshunt and Ware it
reached Braughing; then proceeded by Buntingford and Royston,
following the line of the present road, to Godmanchester (Du-
ROLTPONS). At Braughing it threw off, as I suppose, the road
already mentioned to Chesterford. At Royston it crossed the
Icknield Way, and at two miles further north the Ashwell
Street. At Arrington Bridge, named from the village called
53
Ermingtune in the Domesday Survey, the Akeman Street was
crossed by it. At about three miles from Godmanchester it
passes a spot called Latenbury. It went through the middle of
the station Durolipons, as the Via Devana appears to have
passed on the outside of it on the north-east, and the Roman
road from Sandy similarly on the west^ : the three combining to
cross the river Ouse together. From Godmanchester its course
was by Alconbury Hill, Sawtry, and Stilton (a little to the
west of which place there is a Caldecot at about midway be-
tween the Erming Street and the Bullock Road) to Chesterton
on the Nen, and Castor, the site of the Dljrobriv^ of An-
toninus, to Lincoln. Between Alconbury Hill and Sawtry this
is now called Stangate. Gale supposed that it crossed the
Ouse at OfFord (or Oldford) a little above Huntingdon, near a
spot called Port Mead ; but that does not seem to have been
the case with the Roman road, although the original British
Erming Way may have passed there, having come from Sandy
by Eynesbury; I am, however, more inclined to think that
it passed the river at or very near to Eynesbury ; but of this
mention will be made under the head of Bullock Road. Horsley,
who will not allow that there was any station at Huntingdon
or Godmanchester, adopts Gale's idea, and says of this line
coming from the north, that " where it is last visible on the
south side of the river [Nen], it falls obliquely on to the
present post-road, and so has probably crossed it near Chester-
ton " (Horsley, Brit. Rom 431). He is apparently in error
when, speaking of the oblique direction of its junction with
the post-road, he states that that shows it to have crossed that
road. We may trust to the Ordnance Map, as I find from per-
sonal examination. The road is quite straight for about ten
1 Durolipons appears to have been hexagonal and placed in the angle
formed by those two roads, but traversed by the greater and probably
more ancient way now called the Erming Street. The outline of the
station may probably be traced in the lanes surrounding the modern town.
54
miles, or for five on each side of DUROBRIV^, the station close
to Chesterton ; and it is the turnpike-road that joins it at an
acute angle, and chaoges its original direction for that of the
Eoman line. I saw the foundation of the Roman road at about
half-a-mile to the north of the Nene formed of large slabs of
stone set on mortar made with pounded tile. It is probable
that the British (or other early) way coming from Lincoln, and
now called King Street, after passing through Castor, crossed
the river with the Erming Street, and accompanied it through
DuROBRiv^, but then, turning to the right parted from it and
passing along the "convenient ridge of high ground " mentioned
by Horsley, became what is now called the Bullock Road, of
which a description is given in a future page.
Gibson {Anton. 142) considers that DUROBRIV^ was a
name applied to the camps placed on both sides of the river
Nen at Castor, Alwalton, Chesterton, and Water Newton, at
all of which places he states that remains of them have been
found. He states that the name means " camps by the river,"
or the "water-cities." In the Itinerary of Richard of Ciren-
cester (a work deserving of little confidence owing to its more
than doubtful authenticity) we find Durnomagus in the place
that is occupied by DuROBRiViE in Antoninus; and it is sup-
posed that the former was that part of the town which was
situated on the northern side of the river at and about Castor,
and the latter the part lying to the south of the river between
Chesterton and Water Newton. But his guesses are of ex-
ceedingly little value. Gibson's work above quoted contains an
account of DuROBRiViE as it was then (17G9) known, and
Mr Artis has more recently made very extensive excavations at
Castor, and published a series of plates illustrative of his dis-
coveries. A list of Roman coins found at Castor is given in the
Journal of the Archceological Association (ii. 265). A short state-
ment of some of Mr Artis's discoveries will also be found in that
Journal (i. 1) ; and in the Gentleman* s Magazine (xci. Pt. 1. 483),
00
where it is stated, that the antiquities were distributed over a
spot of a triangular shape, of which two of the sides are 2 miles,
and the other side 1 J mile in length, the churchyard of Castor
being at the apex. Supposing the triangle to stand north and
south, as is most probable, this space would include nearly, if
not quite, all the places mentioned by Gibson.
5. The Icknield Way. Dr Guest points out that this
was called "Ichenilde" or "Icenhilde Weg" in Anglo-Saxon
charters. Higden, mistaking the Eykenield Way for it, caused
the transfer of the name from our county to Staffordshire ; for
his book was so popular that he has been followed in this mis-
take, as well as in other respects. Accordingly Icknield is now
applied to many spots near to the Rykenield Way. The simi-
larity of the names misled him.
In our district the true Icknield Way may easily be traced
from near Thetford to Icklingham, where there are Roman
remains, and where Horsleyplaced the ancient Camboritum,
then crossing the river Lart at Lackford, and falling into the
line of the present road at Kentford. It forms from thence
the boundary of the counties of Suffolk and Cambridge as far
as a point upon Newmarket Heath, about a mile to the north-
. east of the DeviVs Ditch. That it passed close by Newmarket
is shown by a deed printed by the Archaeological Institute
{Norwich Volume, 22) relating to the transfer of " totum so-
larium meum lapideum quod se extendit super Ykenildeweie "
by "Robertus hlius Radulfi Brother de Novo Mercato." The
terms of the deed refer specially to the gate of the grantor's
house. The place was therefore at Newmarket. The date of
the deed is apparently in the reign of Hen. III. At a little
distance to the east of Newmarket it passes a tumulus called
Bury Hill. We are told by Dr Bennet — for I believe that its
exact course is at present unknown — that " keeping to the
hilly ground to the east of the present road it bears directly
for Ickleton, without bending out its course or inclining towards
56
the considerable Roman station at Chesterford, not far from
which it passes. It is remarked by Stukeley and Mason that, in
its crossing one of the ancient ditches," the Brent or Pampisford
Ditch (Gough's Camden, 141), "so common in this part of the
country, the fosse has been evidently filled up to admit the road."
It appears almost certain from this remark,that those antiquaries,
or Mason alone (for he is the person mentioned by Gough),
traced some part of its course in our county. We are informed
above that it kept to the east of the present road from New-
market to Chesterford, and I had hoped that the boundaries
of parishes might restore its probable line. These boundaries
do not however much assist us. They are very irregular in the
neighbourhood of the present road throughout the northern
half of the debated district, except that they coincide with
it between Bangalore Barn and the Green Man ; from the
Balsham Dyke to the point where it becomes the boundary of
the county they exactly follow its course. In all probability,
then, this latter part of the modern road is on the line of the
ancient one. When within less than a mile of Great Chester-
ford it makes a turn nearly at right angles with its former
course to pass Ickleton, the county boundary accompanying it
round the curve. There is reason to believe that Ickleton was
the site of a British town. Camden calls it " an ancient little
city." It then probably went by Ickleton Grange to a point
near Chrishall Grange, not far from a tumulus opened by the
late Lord Braybrooke. From thence it may be traced as a
nearly disused track to Known's Folly, near to which spot it
becomes the boundary of the counties of Cambridge and Hert-
ford. In this part it passes across the Heydon or Brand Ditch
to be noticed further on. It may be followed by Royston and
Baldock, and so to Dunstable. Dr Bennet found it to be "very
manifest on the hill-side south-west of Ickleton and on the
Downs near Royston." There is no trace of it now in the
former place, which is ploughed up, but it is used as a road
57
near the latter, where it crosses Burloes Hill, on which are or
were many tumuli of the stone age. Near to this road in the
year 1847 Lord Braybrooke found, at a place called Five
Barrow Field (which is about one mile and a half from Royston,
two from Melbourn, and three from Barkway), cinerary vessels
of unbaked clay and a coin of the first brass of Marcus Aurelius;
also a covered way extending from S.E. to N.W. At two
miles distance, he informs us, that there is another similar way
extending as far as the eye can reach to the westward {Archceo-
logia^ xxxii. 357. Sepult Explor. 25).
To the west of Royston there was a Roman camp of which
a plan was exhibited to the Society of Antiquaries in 1744, by
Mr Nichols, but he does not appear to have deposited it with
the Society, as no trace of it is now to be found [Camden, ii.
65). In the same direction *' several British hut-circles have
been opened, containing ashes and fragments of bronze " (^Arch.
Journ. XXV. 27). Traces of very ancient cultivation may be seen
on the turf, and many Roman coins have been found.
6. AsHWELL Street. — This name is now employed to
designate a. straight piece of road extending from near Ash-
well to the Erming Street near Kneesworth. It was supposed
to be the Icknield Way by the late Rev. Dr Webb, Master of
Clare College, and Rector of Litlington. and is called Roman by
him. In the former idea I believe that he will be generally con-
sidered to have then been in error, in the latter he is most proba-
bly correct. This road seems to have commenced at Shefford,
passed by Etonbury, Stotfold, and Newnham (a little to the
south of Caldecot), by Harborough Banks, which is "a camp
of 12 acres, where coins, &c. have been found " (Sharpes Gaz.
i. 78). Within a mile to the east of Ashwell it enters
Cambridgeshire, and passing at about a mile to the south of
Litlington church, and crossing the Er^ming Street, was con-
tinued to Melbourn Bury. From that place it seems to have
passed between the southern point of the deep morass called
58
Melbourn Common, and the northern end of the Bran (or as
I call it for distinction sake, the Hey don) Bitch, to Foulmire and
Triplow, a little to the south of Whittlesford, where it crossed
the southern branch of the river Cam, through Pampisford, and
by the northern end of the Brent Ditch to join the Icknield Way
and Peddar Way at Bourn Bridge.
Between Caldecot and Henxwell were found, in 1720, many-
urns, with bones and ashes, several skeletons lying to the south-
east, some paterae with names, lachrymatories, fibulae, beads, &c.;
also in 1724, three paterae, two patellae of red earth, an ampulla,
a small urn of different colours, a glass lachrymatory, the handle
and neck of a glass simpulum, stone [?] handle of a sword, brass
fibulae, &c., were found in Henxwell parish. (Minutes of Soc. of
Antiq. quoted in Cough's Camden, i. 342).
LiTLiNGTON. — An account of the Roman burial-place by the
Ashwell Street, " the line of communication between the Roman
station at Ashwell and that at Chesterford," is given in the
Cambridge Chronicle (April 26, and May 17, 1821). The plan
on the opposite page will show the position of this cemetery in
the inclosure R. It is derived from a rough sketch made by the
late Dr Webb. It is stated that eighty urns containing human
bones, between twenty and thirty simpula, twenty paterae of the
red Samian ware, twenty lachrymatories, and about thirty
earthern vessels were found. Also two urns, of green glass,
one square with each side measuring 8 inches, and the height
13 inches, the other smaller, with handles both massive
and beautiful, very similar to those described in the Archceo-
logia (Vol. x. and xiv.), as discovered at Lincoln and Haver-
liill. Also tfWO glass vessels with long necks and straight
handles. The paterae of Samian ware have the potter's marks
PATER. F., GRACISSA F., ELVILLI., DIVICATVS., &C. ; they are
G or 7 inches in diameter; some have a leaf on the
edge but no potter's work. They frequently served as covers
to the urns. An urn, a simpulum, and a patera were in
59
general found together ; the simpulum contiguous to the urn ;
the patera, if not used as a cover, placed perpendicularly touch-
ing the urn. Many tiles were found of about three-fourths of an
inch in thickness, 17 inches in length, and 12 in breadth,
and somewhat concave, and turned down at the edges about an
inch. Coins were found of Constantino (silver), having on the
reverse three stars over a globe placed upon an altar, with
VOTIS over it and XX beneath, surrounded by the motto
BEATA TRANQUlLlTAS ; one of Antoninus Pius, and of Alexander
Severus \
To these Dr Webb adds (Archceol. xxvi.) coins of Hadrian,
Quintilius, Carausius, and Magnentius; also a Roman style
1 Some of the sepulchral vessels are figured in ^mii^&Vollect Antiquaj
i. t. 12.
60
of brass, and a number of fibulae of brass. Several Saxon coins,
being silver pennies of Burgred of Mercia and of Ethelred the
Elder, have been found {Camb. Chron. May 17, 1821). Many
of these antiquities are now preserved in the Museum of the
Cambridge Antiquarian Society to which they were given by
the late Rev. Dr Webb.
■-^i^ilii
\2
EfELfX
At a meeting of the Cambridge Antiquarian Society (May
6, 1841), the late Rev. W. Clack exhibited coloured drawings of
a tesselated pavement found in a Roman villa at Litlington
(Camh. Chron. May 8, 1841), and at another meeting (Dec. 6,
1841) he gave an account of his whole proceedings iu the
61
exploration of the villa, which consisted of more than thirty
rooms and a bath {Camh, Chron. Dec. 11, 1841). It was
situated between the Ashwell Street and Litlington church,
and the examination of it was chiefly made in the year 1829
(Camb. Chron. May 29, 1829). Unfortunately Mr Clack's col-
lections were sold in Devonshire, and cannot now be traced,
except a very few of the Roman vessels which are in the pos-
session of the Cambridge Antiquarian Society. His manu-
script and plans also never came into the hands of the Society
and cannot now be found.
A terra-cotta vase nearly five inches high, and ten inches
in circumference, was found at Guilden Morden in 1879, and
is now in the possession of the Rev. S. S. Lewis, of Corpus
Christi College. Its ornamentation consists of wreaths of olive
and laurel inclosing the inscription vtere FELIX painted
around in white characters seven-eighths of an inch high. It is
represented two-thirds of the true size on the opposite page.
It may be noted that the same legend is found on a pewter lanx
discovered at Welney in Norfolk, in 1864, and described in the
ArchcBol. Journ. (xxvii. 98), and figured in Fen Land (p. 474).
From the form of the letters on the vase and the discovery of
coins of the early Caesars near Guilden Morden we learn that the
Coin fotlvd at Litlington.
Obc. NERO'CLAVD(ms).CAESAR.AVG(ustus) QER(mamcus) p(ontifex) M(aximu8)
TR(ibunitia) p(otestate) iMP(erator).
Rev. s(enatus) c^onsulto). Victory rising in the air, and holding a shield
on which is inscribed spqr.
62
Romans occupied that district at an early period. The dis-
covery of a second brass coin of Nero (see p. 61) in a garden at
Litlington enables us to approximate to a superior limit of date
for the Roman occupation of this neighbourhood.
The discovery at Litlington, in January, 1881, of a Roman
mosaic pavement and hypocaust, in a garden next to the site of
Dr Webb's excavations, has been announced; but it was of the
ordinary kind, made of plain white cubes of stone, and has
since been destroyed.
At Limlow or Limbury Hill (marked as " Tumulus " only on
the Ordnance Map), which is about half-a-mile to the south of
the above burial-place, skeletons, with coins of Claudius, Ves-
pasian, and Faustina were found in 1833, as we learn from the
communications made by the Rev. Dr Webb, to the Society of
Antiquaries, and published in the Archceologia (xxvi. 368, t. 44
and 45, also p. 374).
The Society of Antiquaries has a large olla of Anglo-Roman
ware, much broken, found in 1843 at Melbourn, and presented
to the Society by Mr Alex. Watford of Cambridge. It is 12J
inches high, and 7J inches wide at the mouth (Way's Cat. of
Antiq. (he. 17).
Mr Beldam mentions {Archceol. Joiirn. xxv. 30) an import-
ant Roman camp at Melbourn which I have not seen. He says :
"it formed a quadrangle of about 200 yards, surrounded by
a vallum with a second vallum towards the east. It occupied
a flat of dry ground defended towards the north-east and east
by the morass. Under its western side passed the ancient
road to Cambridge, still known in this part by the name of the
Portway, and a similar space of about 200 yards of high ground
divided it from the Meldreth morass still further to the west."
There is no trace of this work on the Ordnance Map. Various
antiquities have been found near to it and about Melbourn, viz.
" funereal urns now in the British Museum," Samian ware and
coins.
63
The Chronicle Hills, three tumuli, which stood in a line
bearing north and south upon the eastern side of a brook which
divides the parishes of Triplow and Whittlesford, and a short
distance to the north of the supposed continuation of the Ash-
luell Street, were levelled in 1819. They contained the remains
of skeletons. Adjoining them an ancient well or Roman rubbish
pit was found filled with broken pieces of pottery with red and
black glazing, and a number of tiles formed to overlap each
other. Remains of interments were also found in other tumuli
near the Chronicle Hills, and the remnants of a bronze vessel.
One of the skeletons was in a sitting posture. In both of
these cases bones of animals were observed, and especially an
enormous quantity of very small bones, but the animal to which
they belonged was not determined (Gent. Mag. Ixxxix. 1, t. 27;
Camh.Chron. Nov. 13, 1819).
Near Foxton, which lies to the north of Foulmire, an Am-
phora, a much-broken vase of Arretine ware, and other articles
of Roman pottery, were found in 1852 {Camb. Antiq. Soc. Gomm.
i. 43), also a Roman key of bronze.
A representation of the vase more perfectly restored than as
figured in the Communications is on p. 64. It is represented as
of -Jrd the real size, but the potter s marks from its side and foot
are of the size of the original.
At Hinxton and Whittlesford coins of the early emperors
have been found, and at the latter place a cinerary urn of a
peculiarly elegant shape.
Mr Woodward supposed that the Ichnield Way starting from
Norwich passed by Buckenham to Ixworth, and from thence to
Bury St Edmund's. In my opinion, and in that of the Ord-
nance Surveyors, it may still be traced from near Thetford to
Kentford. Mr Woodward lays down a British way on the line
which I believe to have been taken by the Icknield Way, viz.,
from Norwich by Wymondham and Attleborough to Thetford
{Archceol. xxiii. 368).
64
It is not proposed to treat here of the alternative tracks on
the Essex side of this way. They are very fully detailed by
Mr Beldam in his valuable paper (Archceol. Journ. xxv.) but are
out of our county.
7. Peddar Way. — The Rev. C. H. Hartshorne {Salopia
Antiqua, 274) has employed this term to designate an ancient,
probably Roman, road, which, having no recognized name
throughout the greater part of its course, bears this appellation
in the part which lies between Castle Acre and the sea. It
began at Stratford-le-Bow near London, and passing Wood-
ford, Epping, Harlow, Bishop's Stortford, and Newport, reached
65
Great Chesterford, at about a mile beyond which it joined the
Icknield Way, and they proceeded together at least as far as
Worsted Lodge on the Via Devana, and perhaps to Mutlow
Hill Gap in the Balsham Dyke. It is probable that they
separated at the former place, and that the Feddar Way went
by Shardlow's Well at the northern end of the stronger part
of the Balsham Dyke, and then along a series of lanes com-
mencing a little to the south of Great Wilbraham, and ex-
tending to the Beacon tumuli at Upper Hare Park on the
ascent of Newmarket Heath. These lanes are now called the
Street Way, and it is by the side of them that Lord Braybrooke
excavated an extensive Anglo-Saxon burial-place, and found
many valuable antiquities \ It seems then to have passed
through what is now called the Running Gap in the DeviVs
Ditch, by the end of the marshy ground at St Mindred's Well,
otherwise called Favin's Head, to Exning, where many Saxon
and Roman (Camh. Antiq. Soc. Rep. vi, 10, and Museum) remains
have been found. From Exning its line lay apparently by
Chippenham and Badlingham to Mildenhall (where Roman
remains have been found, as I learnt from Mr Arthur Taylor),
or Barton Mills, by Mareway or Portway Hill (by both of which
names the place is known) to Brandon, and so by Mundford,
Ickborough, and Hilborough, to Swaffham and Castle Acre,
terminating at Brancaster. According to this view of the
course of the Feddar Way, it would appear to have supplied
for the Romans the place of the older British Icknield Way
throughout that part of its course which lies to the east of
Chesterford. The Ashwell Street probably did the same for many
miles to the west of that place. The late Mr Woodward sup-
posed that the Feddar Way reached Castle Acre from quite a
different district. He brings it in a direct line from Ixworth in
1 See "Saxon Obsequies illustrated by ornaments and weapons dis-
covered by the Hon. R. G. Neville in a cemetery near Little Wilbraham,
1852."
B. 5
B6
Suffolk by Brettenham, leaving Swaffham a little to the west
(ArchcBoL xxiii. 370, t. 31). It is stated by him that the road is
tolerably distinct from Brettenham to the west side of Merton
Hall near Watton.
Mr R. Gale states {Bel. Gal. in Bibl. Topog. Brit. iii. 117),
that at a place called by the country people Starbury Hill, just
above the London road near Audley End, there are the visible re-
mains of a square work, where the author of Sir Thos. Smith's
life fp. 130) tells us Roman money has been found, particularly
a golden coin of Claudius ; which is also confirmed by Hollin-
shed (p. 218), who mentions likewise the finding of a large
antique silver cup there. This camp is stated to be square, but
is probably what is now called Ring Hill, although certainly
that intrenchment is not square.
The late Lord Braybrooke examined the Roman station at
Chesterford with great care, and collected a very extensive
Museum of the remains disinterred there under his directions,
which is preserved at Audley End. He considers Chesterford
to have been the ICEANUM of the Romans. He has given an
account of these antiquities in two privately printed volumes
entitled, Antiqua explorata, and Sepulta explorata, and also a
sketch of his proceedings in the Journal of the Archceological
Association (iii. 208 and 344).
Prof. T. M'^K. Hughes has given in the fortieth Annual
Report of the Cambridge Antiquarian Society/ an interesting
preliminary report concerning a kiln discovered at Great
Chesterford just on the borders of our county, in 1880. It is
so interesting that a notice of it is given here notwithstanding
its position just outside our bounds. " It consists of a circu-
lar chamber the top of which is about 12 feet in diameter
and was sunk 18 feet into the ground, tapering to a flat-
bottomed basin. It was surrounded by a wall of large round
or subangular stones... set with a calcareous mud, and the
inside plastered with the same. The walls were 1 foot 8 inches
67
thick. At 4 feet 7 inches from the bottom there was a ledge
a little over a foot across. The chamber was entered on the
north side at the level of the ledge by a pathway which
sloped gently from the surface of the ground. A few Roman
bricks had been used in forming the doorway. There was a
window-like opening about 2 feet in its longest diameter,
probably for draught, about 9 feet from the bottom of the
opposite side. The top of this ' kiln ' had been broken away
at an early period. From its contents it was clear that it
had been used as a refuse pit " (See p. 31). The date of this
pit is shown by the Roman bricks used in its wall and the dis-
covery of coins of Magnentius (a.d. 350 — 353),Valentinianus (A.D.
364 — 375), and Victorianus amongst the rubbish contained in it.
It also contained the bones of Bos primigeniiis, horse, sheep,
red-deer, pig, dog, cat (whether wild or domestic was not deter-
mined), and the common fowl. There was a great variety of broken
Roman pottery, a few bronze articles, and other remains in it.
Lord Braybrooke made excavations at Mutlow Hill, a large
tumulus close adjoining the Balsham Dyke. He found Roman
remains consisting of bronze fibulae, armillae, &c., and 79 coins,
including those of Antoninus Pius (silver); Domitian, Trajan,
Hadrian, Aurelius, Com modus, and Caracalla, of first brass ;
.Vespasian, Titus, Hadrian, Antoninus Pius, Lucius Verus, of
second brass; Constantino, Licinius, Gratian, Victorinus, Pos-
tumus, Allectus, Claudius Gothicus, Tetricus, Valentinianus, of
third brass. These were found in the examination of the
foundations, composed of large bricks shaped from chalk, of a
circular building, measuring 35 feet across, and with 3 feet
thickness of wall {Archcaol. Journ. ix. 229).
Two of the barrows on the edge of Newmarket Heath,
belonging to the group called the Beacons, were examined in
May 1846 by a party from Cambridge. In one of them nothing
was found as it appeared to have been previously opened; in
the other the remains of a British interment, consisting of a
5-^2
68
rude vase (now in the Cambridge Antiquarian Museum), a few
bones, and some ashes, were discovered [Camb. Chiton. May 23,
1846).
In removing a barrow for the purpose of improving the
exercise ground on Newmarket Heath, an urn of rude con-
struction and materials, containing ashes and some bones, was
found in its centre ; also two coins, supposed to be Roman, and
a fragment of a cup of far superior manufacture to the urn
above mentioned, were found lying amongst the soil at the
depth of about two feet {Camb. Chron. Jan. 26, 1827).
Several Roman antiquities have been found at Exning, of
which two urns are in the Cambridge Antiquarian Museum ;
and many coins of the later Roman Emperors have occurred
there, but they are mostly illegible.
There appears to have been a road leaving the Peddar Way
at Bishop's Stortford, crossing the Erming Street at Braughing,
and continued to Baldock ; passing by a track already noticed
to Shefford, and perhaps carried on by Bedford, Higham Ferrars,
Kettering, and Market Harborough to Leicester. This cross
track probably started from Colchester, passing Braintree and
Dunmovv on its way to Bishop's Stortford.
8. The Fen Road. — This road appears to have started
from the coast of Norfolk at Happisburgh, passed by Walsham,
Reepham, and Swatfham, where it crossed the Peddar Way
to Denver near Downham Market, where it also crossed the
Akeman Street, and proceeded in a pretty direct line to the
high land at Norwood Common at about a mile to the north
of March, near to which (on the road to Wisbech, and there-
fore probably not far from the line of the Roman Way) three
urns full of burned bones, and a pot containing 160 denarii
of nearly all the Emperors from Vespasian to Antoninus Pius
inclusive, were found in 1730 (Cough's Camden, 141) ; an
aureus of Valentinianus was found there in 1845. Mr W.
Marshall of Ely informs me that near Eastrey this road stands
69
1 — 2 feet above the present surface of the land, and is nearly
60 feet wide, and as hard as stone. The road then went by
Eldernell to Whittlesey, and the neighbourhood of Standground.
It perhaps crossed the river at Peterborough, from whence
Dr Bennet states that it had, in his time, been recently traced
to the Roman station near Castor, and Mr Gibson says posi-
tively that that was its course ; passing from Peterborough in
a straight line through Milton Park, and the then open field
to Love Hill, and so on to the centre of the camps at Castor
{Antoninus, iii.) ; or it may have gone direct to Chesterton,
and joined the Ermiiig Street before crossing the river. Sir
W. Dugdale, in his History of Embanking (p. 175), speaks of
this road as follows : " Neither is the long causeway made of
gravel of about 3 feet in thickness and 60 feet broad (now
[1662] covered with moor, in some places 3, and in some others
5 feet thick), which extendeth itself from Downham in Norfolk
(near Salter's Lode) over the great wash to Charke ; thence to
March, Plantwater, and Eldernell, and so to Peterborough, in
length about 24 miles, likely to be other than Roman work, as
may be seen from the words of Herodian (Lib. 3) in the life
of Severus the Emperor, where taking notice how hardy and
warlike a people the Britons were, and of their expertness in
swimming, he saith : * Sed imprimis tamen curse habuit ponti-
bus occupare paludes, ut stare in tuto milites siquidem
pleraque loca frequentibus oceani alluvionibus paludescunt ;
per eas igitur paludes barbari ipsi natant.' " In another place
he remarks : " Mr Jonas Moore (the chief surveyor of this great
work of draining in Cambridgeshire and the counties adjacent)
tells me that the causeway I formerly mentioned is 60 feet
broad in all places where they have cut through it, and about
18 inches thickness of gravel lying upon moor, and now in
many places 3 feet deep under a new accession of moor"
(Sir W. Dugdale to Sir T. Brown 1658, in Brown's Posth.
Works, p. 4). Stukeley says that it was often discovered when
70
digging tlie drains. I know nothing personally of much of this
line. The difficulty of tracing an ancient road through such a
country is of course peculiarly great ; as however the Ordnance
Surveyors mark a line throughout the whole of the above course
from Denver Sluice to Whittlesey it is nearly certain that they
saw traces of it. On the line of this road we find that there
are eleven miles of fen between Denver and March, and four
between the latter place and Eldernell, and IJ mile from
Whittlesey to Horsey Hill, where the road crossed the Old Nen
river. Mr Little {Journ. Archceol. Assoc, xxxv. 267) has given
a detailed account of it, especially of that part between March
and Eldernell. He says " it is a causeway raised about 3 feet
above the fen, and challenges the notice of the most careless
passer by On the high lands by March it can hardly be
seen but that it was visible a few years ago there can be
no doubt. After leaving the high lands of March the road
makes an abrupt turn to the north-west as if to keep to the
high land as long as possible. After running in that direction
for about a thousand yards it resumes its former direction to
the west and crosses the fen in a fairly straight line for about
■four miles to Eldernell."
Wells traces on the map, appended to his work entitled The
Bedford Level, what is manifestly the course of this road, which
he there calls Ireton's Way, but does not give that name to it
in his text, where he informs us that "at various places the
remains of this stupendous undertaking may be easily traced"
(Bedford Level, i. 60).
In May, 1853, I saw traces of the eastern part of it, in the
form of a ridge crossing a ploughed field, between a lane which
is the boundary of the parish of Denver at Nordelph and a wind-
mill, following the line faintly traced on the Ordnance Map.
Along that narrow line only there was plenty of flint gravel, which
must have been brought from a considerable distance. A middle-
aged labourer directed us to the spot, and stated that his grand-
71
father liad told him that a gravel road had been found there
when some of the drains were cut. I also saw what seemed to
be its remains, extending from a spot called Stone Cross a
little to the north-east of Denver, along a lane and across a
grass field, and pointing towards Bexwell and Crimplesham.
It seems probable that the Akeman Way and Fen Road
crossed each other at the spot now called Stone Cross. On
another occasion I saw the road commencing at about IJ mile
to the west of the former place, and followed its course over the
lands by London Lode (marked as Neatmore, Lot xi. on WeWs
Map of the Bedford Level) as far as Fortrey's Drain. On the
ploughed land it was shown by the yellow colour of the corn,
and in a grass-field by a well-defined ridge about 52 feet wide
with a depression upon each side. An old man working at one
of the drains stated that he remembered having heard of an
old gravel road on the line of the Fen Way, and that it was not
the old road which ran by the side of London Lode. In a
newspaper paragraph, signed J. A. C. in June, 1850, it is stated
that the chief Roman road in the Fens " is that stretching over
Bedford Level, between Denver and Peterborough, 24 miles in
length, and about 63 feet broad and 3 feet thick. It con-
sists of a layer of oak trees immediately on the moor (which is
much compressed by the weight), above them a paving of Nor-
thamptonshire flag-stone, and upon that alternate coatings of
gravel and clay cemented into a hard mass." Mr W. Marshall,
of Ely, believes from " careful personal examination" that this
road has never been covered by the peat. He says " I found
unmistakeable proofs that that causeway had been carried over
the peat, and constructed upon boughs and branches of trees ;
and that there is a considerable thickness of peat under it."
But he adds " I am acquainted with one gentleman who knows
the locality well, who thinks that Dugdale's statement may be
reconciled with the present aspect of the causeway" {Gamh.
Antiq. Comm. iv. 205).
72
In the course of the formation of the railway, three Koraan
vases were found in a bed of gravel 3 feet below the
surface at Norwood Side by March, which are now in the
Wisbech Museum. "In 1730, when the road was making
from Wisbech to March [between March common and Guy-
hirne], two urns were found, in one of which were bones and
ashes, and in the other about 300 pieces of silver coin, of all
the Roman Emperors from Vespasian to Constantine, both in-
clusive, no two pieces alike {Reliq. Gal. in Bihl. Topog. Brit. iii.
163 and 465, where they are described). Also a few years since
[before 1827] some coins of Hadrian were found in a field of
Mr Richards' ; and more recently, in digging a hole for a gate-
post, nearly half a peck of base silver, of about the time of
Gallienus, was found at Stoney, near March " (Watson's Wis-
bech, 588). Also, a large quantity of Roman potter}^, including
Samian ware and sepulchral urns, was presented to the Wisbech
Museum, in Jan. 1848, by Mr W. E. Rose, which had been
found at Stoney in the course of the formation of the railway
at that place [Camh. Chron. Jan. 8, 1848). In one of them an
aureus of Antoninus was found (Arch. Joiirn. xix. 365).
Mr I. Deck possessed a necklace of 39 rough amber, and 3
blue glass beads, and also a bronze spear head and various
other " RomaU " implements. They were found in company
with a skeleton in Maney Fen, and were British rather than
Roman {Camh. Chron. May 2, 1840). Maney is at some dis-
tance from any of the old roads, and in the heart of
the fens.
At Thorney, which is a few miles to the north of Whittlesey,
many very wejl preserved urns and coins have been dug up
near to the church. There were several coins of Trajan
(Watson's Wisbech, 560).
About the year 1742, several Roman lamps were found by
a man who was ploughing at Glassmore (a little to the S.E. of
Angle Bridge on the Whittlesey Dyke) ; they were made of red
73
ware, and all found lying very regularly in a row (Watson's
Wisbech, 569. Minutes of Spald. Soc. in Gough's Camden, ii.
1-iO*).
Mr Woodward supposed that this road reached Denver by
a direct route from Norwich, passing by Ovington and Oxburgh.
He mentions that traces of a road have been noticed at He-
therset, on a farm called Plainard's — also in the parish of
Saham, where three Roman pigs of lead were found, — likewise
that there is a Roman encampment at Ovington, — and that
Roman coins have been found at Oxburgh {Archceol. xxxiii. 368).
This is an extremely likely course for a road to have taken ;
but, even allowing its existence, it does not destroy the high
probability of the line by SwafFham. There appear to be
traces of an ancient road passing by Stradset to Swaffham, and
also, I think, to the east of that place on the way to Hap-
pisburgh, and perhaps Norwich.
9. Ely to Spalding. — Dr Stukeley believed that a road
branched from the Akeman Street at Littleport (at least so I
understand his remarks), and went by the way of Welney, pro-
bably along the line of the Old Causeway Dyke to Upwell and
Elm ; and from thence in a direct line to Spalding. It seems
to have kept on the western side of the Ouse (which then ran
in the course of what is now called the Welney River) to
Welney, at which place many Roman coins have been found
(Gough's Camden, 141*), of which Watson {Wisbech, 553) tells
us that they were obtained in 1718 {Cole's MS.), and that
plates of them were engraved and presented to Trinity College
Library by Beaupre Bell. At Welney it probably crossed the
river and took a direct course along the Old Causeway Dyke^
to Upwell, near to which place, in 1844, ''some labourers
digging upon an old Roman road, in the occupation of G. Wooll,
Esq.... found two vases filled with coins of various sizes in an
^ See map in Armstrong's King^s Lynn.
74
excellent state of preservation" {Gent Mag. N. S. ix. 302).
The road appears to have again crossed the river immediately
after passing Welney.
"About the year 1713, an urn full of small Roman brass
coins, most of them of Victorinus and Tetricus, was found
not far from a tumulus at Elm ; and a Roman altar, 26
inches high and 14 broad {Coles MSS), is stated to have been
found at the same place. Also coins of Roman emperors from
Gallienus down to Gratian were found in this parish, and de-
posited with Beaupre Bell, Esq., who has given an account
thereof" {Bih. Top. iii. p. 169).
Concerning the further course of the road it may be well
to quote the remarks of Stukeley as follows : " I suppose this
road passed the Wisbech river above the town towards Guy-
hurn Chapel [probably at or near to Cold Harbour], then went
to Trokenholt and Clow's Cross,... from thence in a straight
line to Spalding ; by this means most of the square forts in
[the Wapentake of] Elloe, where Roman antiquities were dis-
covered, together with most of the southern hamlets, will be
found to be situated near or upon it." Concerning the places
thus noticed he states as follows : " At Gedney Hill several
Roman coins have been found, some of Antoninus. In the
same hamlet, about two miles north of Southsea bank, is a
pasture called the High Doles, being a square doubly moated,
where ancient foundations have been dug up and some Roman
coins. Another like square so moated is in the parish of
[Sutton] St Edmunds, about the same distance from the said
bank where the like matters have been discovered. Aswich
Grange [doubtless Aswichtoft] in Whaplode Drove parish
[where Roman coins are still found {Rep. (&c. of Assoc. Archit.
Soc. i. 341)] is a high piece of ground square and moated
about : in this and near it many Roman coins have been dug
up, and urns^ which I have seen. In the parish of Fleet near ^
Ravensclough, about 1698, upon a piece of high ground where
75
buildings had been, Mr Edw. Lenton dug up a large urn with
letters round it, full of Roman coins, about the quantity of
three pecks,... they were of brass piled edgeways, mostly of
the time of Gallienus and the thirty tyrants so called, Tetricus,
Claudius Gothicus, Victorinus, Carausius, Allectus, &c." (Stuk.
Itin. Cur. i. 11 and 13).
A road supposed to have crossed this at Elm and led to
Wisbech, &c., will be described presently.
10. Suffolk and Sawtry Way. — Several portions of this
road are still in use, and are called the Suffolk Way to the
south of the fens, and Sawtry Way to the north of them. It
came from London to Dunmow (C^saromagus ?) by Wixoe,
where it crossed the Via Devana, to Straddishall, by a very
direct course, but perhaps threw off a loop route near Stam-
bourne, by Ridge well and Clare to Straddishall. It then seems
to have changed its direction from north-east to a little to the
"Nvest of north ; passing by Lid gate, where Roman bricks and
a coin of Alexander Severus have been found. At a little
beyond which place it forms the boundary of the counties of
Suffolk and Cambridge, and bears the name of Suffolk Way ;
then goes by Ouseden, from whence coins of Lucilia and Salo-
iiina have been obtained by the Cambridge Antiquarian Society.
Passing to the east of Newmarket it seems to have gone through
Chippenham Park to Fordham, along Brook Street to Soham,
where on a piece of ground resembling an island in the .fen seven
or eight urns were found (Sir W. Dugdale in a letter to Sir T.
Brown, 1658, in Brown's Posth. Works, 4), and with a raised
gravel crest, along Soham Causeway to Ely. This raised part
or causeway is believed to have been made, I should rather say
repaired, for the first Bishop of Ely by a monk named John.
(Ledger Book of Ely as quoted by Dugdale, Embank, cap. 41.)
In those times it was not unfrequently said that a road was
made by some one, when in fact it was only restored from a
state of extreme decay upon the former foundation. Mr Litch-
76
field informed me that he had a Roman fibula and spear-head
from Soham Fen.
I suspect that it left Ely along the high lands by Alderforth
(perhaps Old Road) to Witchford, then passing a little to the
north of Sutton (South Town) to Bury Steads, where it
descended into the fen, and probably emerged again, after a
distance of five miles, at Colne, the name of which shows that
it probably is a Roman site.
Mr Hartshorne (Salop. Antiq. 273) proposes a different
course for this, which he calls the Sawtry Way. He com-
mences it at Thetford, Cambridgeshire, 2J miles south of Ely,
and believes it to have passed by Stretham, Wilburton and
Haddenham, where Roman vessels have been found (Cambridge
Antiquarian Museum), to Earith, where fragments of Roman
pottery were found in a field on his land, and given to the
Wisbech Museum by Mr John Brown, a respected member of
the Society of Friends, in 1848. What seem to have been
British remains, such as " a dagger," are also mentioned by him
as having been obtained from near the river Ouse at Earith.
What is called the Bulwark at Earith lies between the two
Bedford Rivers and may perhaps have been a Roman work.
In the "restored contour" given in Fenland (p. 471) it is
represented as rectangular with somewhat projecting angles,
and each side as 200 feet in length within the vallum.
A Roman bronze figure of about 9 inches in height, which
is now in the British Museum, is represented of half the real
size by the wood-cut on the opposite page. It was found near
Earith, and is described and illustrated by the Rev. S. S. Lewis in
the Camb. Antiq. Comm. (iii. 231). Mr Brown, its former owner,
also states, in a letter with which he has favoured me, that
querns have been met with there : also in the same field where
the pottery lay he found a "square of about 16 feet, set with
common pebbles, about 2 feet below the soil, with a pebbled
path leading from it ; " also a coin of Commodus, and a small
77
Rbman vase which is in the Wisbech Museum. This road then
led to Needingworth and the neighbourhood of St Ives, whence
it was continued along what is still called the Sawtry Way,
which commences at about one mile to the west of St Ives.
Should this be the correct view, it may have approached the
river Ouse from Soham by crossing the narrow fen to Barraway,
which is on high land and just opposite to Thetford. Even
under this supposition it seems highly probable that the line
from Ely to Colne is also ancient. Dr Grove mentions (Camb.
Univ. Reporter, 1880, 140) the discovery of a Romano-British
cinerary urn, 7 inches in height in Haddenham Fen near the
supposed line of this road.
It is worthy of remark that there is another drier but
circuitous route by which Thetford may be reached from Ford-
T8
ham, viz. by keeping along the top of the narrow ridge of so-
called "highland" by Wicken and Spinny Abbey to Fordey,
and thence crossing the river to Thetford. The word Fordey,
or Road Island, as it probably may be translated, is suggestive.
It is also interesting to learn that a Roman coin was found
at Spinny in 1856, and three coins of Antoninus near Wicken
in 1859. The Rev. H. Pigot brought before the Cambridge
Antiquarian Society (Nov. 29, 1880) several Roman funereal
vessels which had been found near the north end of the ridge
marked on the Ordnance Map as an " old road," which would
be by the side of this supposed line of communication. It is
interesting as showing that there must have been Roman habi-
tations near to this now isolated spot, and probably the graves
were as usual by the side of the road.
On my supposition that this road went to Colne, it must
have divided into two branches ; one going to the neighbour-
hood of St Ives* to be continued along the Bawtry Way, as
would also be the case on Mr Hartshorne's plan, the other
proceeding to Bury near Ramsey in Huntingdonshire. Doubt-
less there was some road from Bury to the Erming Street and
Via Devana, and as much of the country lying to the west of
Bury (Hunts.) must have been very difficult to traverse, it
seems not unlikely that a road was directed towards Hunting-
don, and perhaps also went to a ford at or near Hemingford or
Holywell, so as to communicate with the Via Devana, which
passes at not more than a mile to the south of the river at the
former place. If this ford was at Holywell, the way probably
passed by Swavesey; but if, as seems far more probable, the
Ouse was crossed at Hemingford, it is Ukely that the connecting
^ Gorham states {St Neots, 15), on the authority of Hutchinson's MS.
on Huntingdonshire, that there was a Roman post at Holywell near
St Ives. He says that there was a cliain of forts on the Ouse, viz. Sandy, ^
Ejuesbury, Godmanchester, and Holywell The first three are well known ;
the laf<t I now hear of for the first time.
79
track was continued beyond the way to Cambridge, along what
is now called the Moat Way, by Littlebury to Latenbury on
the Erming Street, and possibly may have even extended by
Graveley to join the road to Sandy.
The modern Sawtry Way is a straight line of road com-
mencing on Houghton Hill, and passing by King's and Abbot's
Ripton and Wood Walton to join the Erming Street or Stan-
gate, near Sawtry.
Mr Litchfield had a small sacrificial cup made of bronze of
about 6 inches in height, with two handles formed in imita-
tion of the caduceus of Mercury, and on each side a centaur,
one of which is playing upon a pipe. It was found in the deep
cutting made for the railroad, near Somersham.
At a later period there seems to have been considerable
communication across the Ouse near St Ives, which caused the
contiguous villages of Hemingford Grey and Abbots to spring
up on the south side, and Wyton and Houghton similarly on
the northern side of the river.
11. Aldreth Causeway. — There is an ancient road which
each of the tracks just mentioned crosses at right angles : in the
one case near Witcham, and in the other at Haddenham. As
much of this road as is nearly certainly ancient, is almost parallel
to the Akeman Street, and served, like it, as a way from the drier
lands near Cambridge to the islands in the fen. Before the
diversion of the waters of the Ouse from what is now called the
Old Ouse or Old West River to the magnificent artificial cuts
known as the Bedford Rivers, the access to those islands must
have been always difficult and often nearly impossible. The
Romans reached them by means of the road from Cambridge to
Ely (the Akeman Street), crossing the river and its accompany-
ing fen near Stretham; and their judgment in selecting this
route is shown by its having continued with little interruption,
and with only slight deviations from its line, to be the principal
way into the Isle of Ely up to the present time. At a late
80
period of the middle ages, and until the modern causeway near
Stretham was formed, a track starting from Cottenham and
crossing the West River at Twenty-pence Ferry communicated
with Wilburton. If we proceed up the old valley of the Ouse
from Twenty-pence Ferry we soon arrive at the road first
mentioned in this paragraph. It is called the Mare Way and
is probably first seen at about half way between Rampton and
Willingham, at a spot marked by a sort of square on the
Ordnance Map, but concerning which we can form no conjecture
as it is now quite altered by the enclosure of the land. From
that place it may be faintly traced as a raised road (but with
two singular breaks in its continuity, where it terminates,
abruptly to recommence at a distance of 50 or 60 yards, at first
to the left and in the other instance to the right hand of its
former course) until it reaches Belsar's Hill. This is a large
nearly circular camp inclosing about 6 acres, the ramparts of
which have been much lowered since the enclosure of the
district and seem to be gradually disappearing under the plough.
This camp is supposed to derive its name from Belisarius the
Roman general, and to have been occupied by him in his war
with the Vandals whom Probus had planted in Cambridgeshire
(E. A. Freeman in lit.). It seems improbable that he made it ;
and if Aldreth Causeway and the Mare Way are Roman, as
some reasonably believe, the Belsar's Hill was probably a
British fort altered and occupied by the Roman troops. From
Belsar's Hill to Aldreth the Mare Way is more distinct. It
crosses the Old Ouse River at High Bridge, which is now in a
very dilapidated state, for I learn that it has not been repaired
since I was there a few years since, when both the abutments
of the wooden bridge were gone and it was with much difficulty
that it could be crossed. I was informed by the late Mr C. H.
Cooper that a piece of land near the bridge is legally charged
with its repair, and the owner ought to be required to
make it passable and keep it so. It would be a misfortune if
81
this ancient and valuable means of access to the Isle of Ely was
totally destroyed as seems not improbable. From the High
Bridge the road is continued under the name of Aldreth Cause-
way. It need scarcely be added that this name is a corruption
of Etheldreda, the foundress of the Abbey of Ely. The existence
of this name adds, in my opinion, to the probability of Wil-
liam I. having found a road here, and not made it as some
have supposed. His chief attack upon the Isle in his war with
Hereward seems to have been made there (see Freeman's Norm.
Conquest, iv. 472). This causeway, although now but little used,
was once of such importance that (as I learned from the Rev.
S. Banks, Rector of Cottenham, but formerly resident at Had-
denham) various parishes in the fens are liable to provide for
the repair of small parts of it respectively. From Aldreth the
road is continued by what is called the Sand Way to Hadden-
ham, and probably extended to Witcham, or even further. It
is nearly certain that this line of communication was connected
at its southern end with Cambridge, along what is now called
Cuckoo Lane, and through the village of Histon. Between the
above-mentioned square spot and the commencement of Cuckoo
Lane it has been nearly obliterated by the enclosure of the land,
but was still (in 1855) known by the name of Mare Way.
Country people inform me that, before the enclosure, there was
an old road that diverged to the right from the Via Devana at
How House, and led to Histon : this may have been the original
line to Cambridge.
At Rampton, about a mile and a half to the south of Belsar's
Hill, there is a curious quadrangular mound defended by a
deep and broad ditch, and also an outer bank upon three of its
sides. It is called Giant's Hill, and inclosed the old residence
of the De Lisle family. Close behind Giant's Hill there is an
oblong mound called Giant's Grave, now covered with brush-
wood. A gold coin of Nero was found at Rampton in 1858
{Camh. . Chron. Dec. 4, 1858); also a Roman Urn was found
B. 6
82
there in 1843, and is in the Cambridge Antiquarian Museum.
At Cottenham, which lies at about half way between this road
and the Akeman Street, a fourth brass coin of Gratianus, a small
Roman urn, the neck of a large vase, and part of an amphora
have been found, and are in the Cambridge Antiquarian
Museumi.
Also, the late Rev. S. Banks had several vases and a beauti-
ful Roman bust which were found in the parish of Cottenham
near to the borders of Landbeche parish, in some gravel pits
which were rich in broken Roman pottery, and closely adjoin the
supposed line of the Car Dyke which is described on a future
page. A figure of this bust, which has been acquired by the
Fitzwilliam Museum, is here given of two-thirds the size of the
original. Including the helmet it is about 7 inches in height,
of which the helmet is 2 inches. The helmet was loose when
found, but was apparently originally attached to the bust. The
bust represents a Roman Emperor which Mr King supposes
was Marcus Aurelius. The chief interest is found in the
helmet, which " represents the face of a Gaul or Briton. The
same character of face, the same lips and moustache may be
seen on the statue of the Dying Gaul of the Capitol, or the
earlier Pergamene sculpture. On the forehead is an ornament
like the ring money of ancient Ireland; behind which on each
side above the ears are two snake-like figures. As the hair
could not be represented in strong relief on a casque, it is
merely indicated by a rough etching similar to that which is
also used for shading on other parts of the face." (King, MS.)
At Over, distant about two miles from the other side of this
road, a denarius of Faustina the elder has been found ; also a
great number of the copper coins of the lower empire, contained
in the remains of a metal box, were obtained by Mr J. Symons.
I was informed by Mr E. Litchfield that so far as could be
made out they were mostly coins of Constantino. Also chains
of complicated construction and apparently Roman, one having
UNIVERSITY
OF
large hooks attached, probably for hanging meat, the other in-
tended to suspend a camp-kettle, were found at a depth of about
5 feet in Over Fen, in 1850 (Camb. Antiquarian Museum). At
Coveney, which is not far from Witcham, the beautiful British
shields described in the ' Publications ' of the Society, and pre-
served in its Museum, were found. (See p. 17.)
About the year 1839, a flint weapon was found in the
channel of the Old Ouse River, and in 1854, a fine bronze
sword was met with near the same spot. Both of these arti-
cles are in the Cambridge Antiquarian Museum. In about
1840 the washing away. of the soil brought to light a black
Roman vase by the side of .the Haddenham Engine-drain; also
6—2
84
a Roman coin was found in Haddenham churchyard, as I was
informed by Mr Banks.
In March 1857, as one of the labourers of Mr Thomas
Greaves of Willingham was ploughing a field called " The
Hempsalls," at the extremity of the parish adjoining Cottenham,
the plough-share turned up something which attracted his
attention. He made further search and found a considerable
number of curious things which he brought to the village,
when they proved to be of Roman origin. They are chiefly
of bronze and consist of the detached remains of a baton or
some similar object, consisting of several tubular pieces, and
bosses forming apparently the ends. It is doubtful if all the
pieces were found, as they do not fit exactly together, and the
whole, if we have the whole, forms a rather short baton. One
of the pieces is very remarkable, being ornamented with figures
in very. high relief: at the upper end a bust of Marcus Aure-
lius apparently ; beneath it a naked boy ; to the left of the
boy an eagle, which has lost its head, standing upon a ball ;
this ball rests on a wheel. To the right of the boy is the bead
of a bovine animal with short conical horns and large erect
ears. Beneath the bust and between the eagle and the ox there
is a figure which may represent a dolphin. All the pieces seem
to have been held in their places by a stick passing through
them, a portion of which remains : the tube is about an inch in
diameter.
There are also remains of two other bronze batons of smaller
size and simpler structure, consisting only of pieces of metal
tube marked with rings externally, and knobs at each end.
But their wooden part is gone, and it is difficult to correctly
assign the several pieces to their proper relative places.
There are also many detached pieces of bronze, and what
appear to be the remains of a bit. In the same field were
found (1) a vitrified ring with enamelled ornaments, (2) a large
amber bead, (3) several rings of jet (?).
85
There were also found with the ahove things several curious
little bronze figures of horsemen fully armed and mounted upon
clumsy disproportioned horses (they are represented in the
annexed woodcut, together with the above-described curious
baton, all of one-fourth the true size). Also an eagle, an owl,
several diminutive human masks, and two large semitrans-
parent beads, one deep blue and the other lighter blue, were
k
Hr
i
found. All these things are still in the possession of Mr Geo.
Pegler, Schoolmaster at Willingham, to whom they were first
taken. Mr Worthington Smith has made as good a represen-
tation of them in the annexed cut as seems possible. They
have all very much suffered from time and apparently from
blows received during the cultivation of the field. The dotted
lines mark the extent of each piece of the baton.
86
In Feb. 1881, a man ploughing in " Twenty-eight acre field "
in Middle Fen, Willingham, turned up an earthen pot from
about 7 inches beneath the surface. It was perfect and
full of coins. He immediately smashed it to get at the coins,
which were apparently very numerous, and were dispersed
in the village. But many appear to have been rusted to-
gether into a useless lump. Amongst those which have been
examined there were small third brass coins of Aurelianus,
Tacitus, Probus, Claudius Gothicus, Portumus, Tetricus, Vic-
torianus, and some of the Constantine family. One or more
other vessels were found in the same place soon afterwards, but
nothing is known of them or their contents ; they fell into the
hands of the labourers who destroyed them, and if anything
was in them they appropriated it.
Also a large collection of pieces of pottery (not broken
pots but detached broken pieces) was found. Can they have
been connected with one of the marks made by the Agrimen-
sores ?
Bury near Ramsey. As it is believed that the station near
Bury in Huntingdonshire has not been described, it is desirable
to include some account of it. The village of Bury is situated at
about a mile to the south of Ramsey in Huntingdonshire. The
station is a little to the south of the church on a slight elevation
called May Hill, but is not now to be easily traced. The eastern
side nearly corresponds with the hedge by the road to Warboys,
and is raised several feet above the road by scarping the slope
of the hiU. The northern end of this bank is occupied by the
hedge, but in its southern half the hedge is placed at its base.
The southern side of the station is to the north of a hedge at
its eastern, and to the south of it at its western end. The
western side is divided into two parts by the shape of the hill
and the boggy ground at its base. It is formed with a terrace
placed against the base, or rather cut out, of the hill just
above the marsh, through which a brook flows at a short
87
distance. The parts of this side are nearly straight, and are
connected by a curve ; along the whole of it the terrace is to
be traced. The northern side appears now to be occupied by
a hedge, but cannot be clearly made out. The inclosed space
is large, being fully a furlong in length from north to south,
but less from east to west, and narrower in its northern than
its southern half. It is commandingly situated, and must have
had great strength. Its interior rises into a considerable hill
for this flat district, and its highest point is capped by a large
tumulus with a cup-shaped top. With the slight exception of
the parts on the outside of the eastern and southern hedges,
88
the whole forms one grass field, and does not appear to have
ever been under the plough. See plan annexed.
12. Bury to Wisbech and Spalding. — There is reason
to suspect that a Roman road went from Bury (Hunts.), perhaps
along an embankment crossing Bury Plashes to Ramsey; then
by Cold Harbour, near Ramsey Mere to Benwick, where Roman
coins have been found (Stukeley, Car. ii. 139); then by Apple-
borough, near Doddington, where, in 1821, some copper coins of
the Emperors Decentius and Constantius were found (Watson's
Wisbech, 585). There has also been a recent discovery of a
large quantity of Roman pottery at Wimblington, on the line
of the railway, and near to it, as Mr W. E. Rose informs me ;
he also tells me that near the same spot a vase was turned up by
the plough in 1848, containing at least 2000 copper coins in a
very decomposed state. Mr Rose states that, " curiously enough
the bottom of the vase contained a piece of lead evidently run
into it in a liquid state, the size and thickness being equal to a
twopenny piece." He adds that "the whole of this locality
[near Doddington] has produced Roman and British antiqui-
ties." The track went by March, where, near to the church,
there is a square entrenchment, having Burrow Moor and
Burrow Farm adjoining it. It next crossed the Fen Road, and
passing Coldham, where Mr Rose states, in the letter with which
he has favoured me, that drain-pipes and other Roman frag-
ments have been found ; and Waldersey, where a Roman vase
was found in 1845. Also at the latter place, in the year 1785,
" an earthen pot containing a considerable quantity of small
copper coins, chiefly of Valentinianus and Arcadius, was dug up "
(Watson's Wisbech, 507 and 508) ; and in 1845 a large Roman
vase was found in Waldersey Fen, and presented to the Wisbech
Museum by Mr W. Jecks, where most of the above-mentioned
antiquities are also preserved.
At and near to Wisbech many Roman coins have occurred.
An aureus of Valentinianus, found in 1845, is in the Cambridge
Antiquarian Museum. In the Wisbech Museum there are
Roman coins found on the North Brink, and a Roman vase
found in a field at South Brink, and coins from other parts of
the neighbourhood. Beyond Wisbech the road ran at a
short distance within the Roman sea-bank by Newton, where
coins of GaUienus occurred in about the year 1787 (Watson's
Wisbech, 487), and more recently of Victorinus; by Tydd
St Mary, near to which place at Tydd Go'ut, a vase was found
in the Roman sea-bank, which is now in the Wisbech Museum,
and then by Long Sutton and Fleet, to Spalding. My informa-
tion concerning this part of the road is derived from a paper in
the Reports, &c. of the Associated Architectural Societies (i. MO),
in which it is described, and stated to be "probably the old
British path on the borders of the marsh, it being still at Fleet
called Hareg-ate or Hero^ate. In the old terriars the road has the
same name near Spalding. A part of this road at and beyond
Moulton was originally a little to the north of the present road,
and is still called Old Spalding Gate ;" otherwise it corresponds
with the modern road.
That part of the Roman bank which I have traced, extend-
ing from close to Wisbech to Tydd Go'ut, is of immense size
and presents the appearance of extreme antiquity. It seems to
have followed the former coast-line through all its irregulari-
ties. In excavating the Eau Brink cut near Lynn the Roman
bank was cut through and found to stand upon a bed of clay,
over which 4 or 5 feet of deposits had accumulated. The
clay was 8 feet thick, and rested upon peat which contained
oak, alder, beech, fir, and hazel branches, stems and roots,
evidently on the site of their growth. It was only about 3^
feet above low-water mark (from a Newspaper paragraph
signed J. A. 0., June 24, 1850).
It must be confessed that the whole of the above line of sup-
posed road is chiefly founded upon probability, and the discovery
of antiquities. The undoubted existence of Roman sea-banks on
90
the coast of the Wash, shows that this district was considered
of value at that period. Dugdale was fully convinced that
the sea-board of Marshland and Holland was gained from the
sea by the Romans {Embanking, cap. 34). At Walsoken near
Wisbech, and close to the Roman sea-bank, two coins of Con-
stantino were found and presented to the Wisbech Museum
(Camb. Ghron. March 2, 1850). At Walpole St Peter, a few
miles to the north of Wisbech, and also close to these sea-banks,
Mr E. Cony stated that a tenant of his, " who lives under
the bank, upon digging in his garden, about 3 feet under
ground, found many Roman bricks, and an aqueduct made with
earthen pipes. These pipes were made of pale reddish earth,
and grew hard again upon their being exposed some time to the
air; the length of these was 20 inches, the bow 3|- inches,
the thickness of their sides half an inch, one of the ends much
smaller than the other." {In a letter frcmi E. Cony^ Esq.,
to R. Gale, Esq., dated Nov. 8, 1727, in Bibl. Topog. Brit.
(Reliq. Gal.) iii. 49.)
A spear, the umbo of a shield, an earthen vessel, and a
glass drinking-cup, similar to those figured by Mr C. R. Smith
{Collectanea Antiqua, ii. t. 51), were found on a slightly
elevated spot near Somersham [now called Chatteris] Ferry.
They are described and figured in the Gentleman s Magazine
(xxxvi. 119) by Dr Stukeley, and although called British by
him were undoubtedly Saxon remains. " In 1824, an earthen
vessel, which contained about 1000 small copper coins, chiefly
of Constantius, many of Constans and Constantino, and a
few with the... emblem of Romulus and Remus suckled by the
wolf, was ploughed up near the [same] ferry, two miles from the
town, on the site of the ancient river or West Water " (Watson's
Wisbech, 578).
A large Roman vase was found at Chatteris in 1830
(height 15 inches, breadth 18 inches), and a small sepulchral
vase containing ashes in 1819, both of which were presented
91
to the Wisbech Museum by Mr J. Girdlestone ; also in the
course of the works for the railroad near to that place, a
large vase (height 16 inches, breadth 17 inches) containing
bones was dug up and given to that museum by Mr W. E.
Rose.
Near the road leading from Somersham to Chatteris, an
urn with Roman coins, and others with sixty coins of the
later emperors, were found in 1731 (Gough's Camden, 159).
And Dr Stukeley states (Reliq. Gal. in Bihl. Topog. Brit. iii.
115) that Roman coins and antiquities have been found at
Somersham.
At Cold Harbour, which is close to what was Ramsey Mere,
this supposed road appears to have divided, a branch towards
the north being called Gnut's Dyke, which will be noticed pre-
sently (p. 95).
13. The Bullock Road. — For convenience I have em-
ployed this name to denote a road extending from Verulamium
to Chesterton on the Nen, with a branch to Godmanch ester ;
although it only bears that denomination in a part of its
course, which may perhaps rightly be considered as a British
Way rather than a Roman Street. It is hoped that this
extension of the name will not be considered as very objec-
tiooable, when it is remembered that there is no name for
the part of it which was certainly used, and perhaps much
improved, by the Romans. It scarcely touches our county,
but as some miles of it appear on the map it ought to be
noticed here. If we commence at Baldock, where it crossed
the Icknield Way, we find it to have nearly coincided with
the modern turnpike-road for many miles to Biggleswade. At
less than a mile from Baldock we arrive at Norton Bury,
where, as has been already stated, a road to Shefford pro-
bably branched from it. A few miles in advance there is
a Caldecot near to it on the right ; and at a few miles further
we meet with Stratton. Due east of Biggleswade it crosses
92
the Akeman Street, and leaving Road Farm a little to the
right the modern road deserts it, and it follows the line of a
fencOi but is nearly or quite effaced for about a mile. It then
reappears by a tumulus near to Fursdon Hall, and may be
seen crossing the marshy land to Stratford and Chesterfield
(or Chesterton, as named by Gorham), the site of Salens,
as is supposed by many authors. But Mr Beldam (Arch. Journ.
XXV. 44), and Mr Watkin (A. J. xxxix. 268), attempt with some
success to prove that they are in error, and that we do not
know the name of the Roman station at Sandy. However that
may be, we may follow the majority of antiquarians in calling
it Salence, until more evidence is obtained concerning the site
of that station, or the true name of that which was at Sandy is
discovered.
On the opposite side of the river Ivel there are again two
Caldecots. On Galley Hill, above Stratford, there is a Roman
fort (probably that called Chesterton by Stukeley, Itin. Cur.
74), very strongly situated, as the sandy hill slopes abruptly
from its ramparts on three of the sides. Separated from this
fort by a narrow and deep valley is a point of elevated land,
which is nearly surrounded by abrupt slopes, and has a very
deep trench and lofty embankment drawn across the narrow
neck, which connects it with the adjoining elevated district.
This seems to have been the British settlement: the people
now call it Caesar's Camp, but it is certainly not Roman. Ex-
actly opposite to the camp on Galley Hill there is a ford of the
river Ivel, which was defended on its western side by the ancient
ramparts called Beeston Berrys, of which there are now only
faint traces to be seen. It is uncertain what was the exact site
of the Roman town ; and indeed as the space between the hills
and the marshes is narrow, it may have been of considerable
length, and trusted for its defence to the fortifications on the
higher ground above it. My friend Mr Arthur Taylor placed
it at the spot occupied by the railway station, above which
93
there is an irregular hill-top fortified along its curved edge by a
tolerably strong rampart, but quite open at its eastern side,
where it adjoins the hill-country. This is the place called
Caesar's Camp. If the station was at the place supposed by
Mr Taylor, the road probably ascended the hill through a hollow
on its north-western side. The Roman station is more usually
placed at Chesterfield, about a quarter of a mile to the south of
the railway station ; and Dr Bennet states {Lysons Bedford^ 27)
that " from the north-east side of the [Romaii] station, near the
banks of the Ivel, this road continues through a small valley,
leaving the British camp above-mentioned [Caesar's Camp] on
the left-hand, and another hill which has been dug up for a
stone-quarry on the right, straight to a hedge-row, which runs
down through a piece of land to a small copse in the bottom
[probably Hawksbury Wood], thence it continues equally
straight, first as a boundary- between Mr Pym's land and
Sandy field [the Hasell Hedge], and then entering some en-
closures crosses the road to Everton and Tempsford, then
passes through a farm-yard, leaving the house [Gibraltar] to
the left, and through some more enclosures to a farm-house
[Low Farm, which is in Cambridgeshire], which stands upon
it, then through another enclosure to Tempsford Marsh [where
there is a Cold Harbour a little on the right] ; after passing
which it ascends the hill close to a barrow or tumulus, almost
the invariable attendant on Roman roads." This tumulus is
now destroyed, and its exact site unknown. Taking up the
account of the road from this place, as given by Gorham
{8t Neots, pp. 3 and 4), and starting from Crane Hill, upon
some part of which this tumulus stood, it bears north-east,
" leaving the manor farm of Buttock's Hardwich and Lansbury
grounds a little on the west, it forms the boundary between
Eynesbury and Abbotsley parishes It crosses the road from
St Neots to Cambridge close to the village of Weal ; the main
road being cut off from its course, and forming an elbow of
94
about 200 yards upon the very line of the Roman Street." Soon
afterwards it forms the boundary of Cambridge and Huntingdon
shires near Graveley, and then bears directly for Godmanchester.
Mr Gorham justly remarks, that " it is not to be distinguished
by an elevated crest... the repeated action of the plough has
completely obliterated its former character ; it consequently
presents to the eye nothing more than an ordinary field-track."
It does not seem to. have entered the hexagonal station at
Godmanchester, but passing along its western side, as the Via
Devana did along the north-eastern, combined with it and the
Erming Street to cross the Ouse. This is the Roman line, and
we have now to endeavour to trace the British Way, which
probably separated from it at a little to the south of Puttock's
Hardwich, (if indeed it did not come along the valley from
Sandy,) and went to Eyuesbury, then crossed the Ouse probably
at Eaton ford and w^ent by Stirtlow (Streetlow ?), Buckden,
Brampton Hut, where it was crossed by the Via Devana, to
Alconbury Weston, where near Hail Weston, on the way to
Great Stoughton and to the south of the road, a bronze figure
of Mercury is recorded by the Rev. G. C. Gorham to have been
found. He gives a map of the remains in that neighbourhood.
(Archceol. xxi. 550, t. 27.) For about a mile beyond that place,
the exact line that it followed is not known. It then com-
mences being called by the name of the Bullock Road at Upton,
and soon passes by Coppingford and Cold Harbour. After
advancing five miles we find another Cold Harbour, imme-
diately after passing which the road crosses to the west of
Billing Brook, thereby departing from the straight course to
Chesterton. Probably it originally kept to the eastern side of
the brook, and arrived at Chesterton by the " convenient ridge
of high ground " mentioned by Horsley {Brit. Rom. 431). It is
also probable that this part of the ancient road obtained its^
present name from being used by the drovers taking their
cattle along it on the way to the great market at St Ives.
96
It is well known that they always followed the grassy parish-
roads, when in their power, so as to avoid toll-gates and
obtain ways more suited to the feet of cattle than the hard
turnpike roads.
14. Cnut's Dyke. — This now forms the foundation of the
road from Bodsey near Ramsey to Pond's Bridge, and was con-
tinued by Horsey Hill and Standground to Peterborough. It
runs by the side of Cnut's, or Suard's, or Oakley's Delph, and
also bears those names. It forms the boundary of Cambridge-
shire throughout nearly the whole of its course. Reynolds
{Anton. . 258) says that it was a paved causewaj^ It is older
than the time of Cnut (as is shown below under the head of
Car Dyke, p. 110), and is very probably Roman.
IV. ANCIENT DITCHES.
The four remarkable ancient ditches which are found in the
southern part of Cambridgeshire are well deserving of atten-
tion, both from the grandeur of execution which is seen in two
of them — for they are, it is believed, the strongest boundary
ditches to be found in the kingdom — and from the remarkably
skilful manner in which they have been planned so as to serve
the purpose of their makers, and at the same time be of the
least extent possible. From the fact that the elevated rampart
is certainly on the eastern side of three of them, it may be
stated with confidence that they were made by the inhabitants
of the district now forming the counties of Norfolk and Suffolk,
as a defence against the attacks of the people of the interior. If
it is really the fact that the Roman roads have been cut through
the dykes in at least three places ; as is stated by several of the
older antiquaries who saw them at a time when inclosure had
not altered the surface of the country as is now the case, nor
the turnpike-roads been formed which represent the ancient
Roman or British lines of way, and when therefore there was
96
far more certainty to be attained concerning the line of these
ways; if, I repeat, the Romans did cut through the banks
and fill up the ditches to make their roads, then of course
the ditches were formed before the complete Roman settle-
ment of this district. Some persons have supposed that they
were made by the followers of Boadicea, others that they were
the work of invaders, perhaps Belgse, to secure the district
conquered from the former Celtic inhabitants. It seems nearly
if not quite impossible to lay down the course of the Icknield
Way, and the Roman Road which undoubtedly succeeded it, so
as to avoid crossing one or more of these ditches ; and had the
ditches been works of a later time than the roads, we could
hardly expect to have found the gaps cut exactly upon the line
of the roads, as seems to be the case with that near Pampisford,
even if so much cannot be said with certainty concerning those
in the Balsham and Devil's ditches.
Mr Beldam appears to have set this question at rest as far
as concerns the Heydon Ditch and the dykes found at about a
mile and a half to the west of Royston, for which I am not
acquainted with any special name. He appears to have called
them the Mile Bitches. "They consist of three ditches very
rudely cut between four banks, which commenced from a
tumulus on the heath, a quarter of a mile to the south, and
went straggling down to the Bassingbourn Spring-head, a dis-
tance of about 2J miles, crossing the Icknield Way in their
course." He mentions various antiquities near to them, for an
account of which I must refer to his apparently quite exhaus-
tive paper (ArchasoL Journ. xxv. 37). He there tells us that he
caused the spot where these ditches cross the old Icknield Way
(now the Baldock Turnpike road) to be examined, and " ascer-
tained that the ditches terminate on either side of the road,
leaving a space of solid chalk of about 16 or 18 feet in width,
over which the old road undoubtedly passed, and proving there-
fore the priority of the road to the ditches." Unfortunately Dr
97
Guest does not notice these Mile ditches. His general idea of
the ditches was that the Fleam and DeviVs Ditches are of Saxon
construction, the Heydon Ditch was made by Cassibelaunus,
the Pampisford Ditch by Cunobeline.
However this may be, there is no doubt that in the Saxon
period they formed the boundary between East Anglia and
Mercia; and that the easternmost of them marked the limit of
the halidome of St Edmund's Abbey at Bury, in the time of
King Cnut. Until recently also it was the boundary of the
diocess of Norwich. Each of these ditches extending from fen
or marshy land to a wooded country, and quite crossing the
narrow open district which lay between the woods and the fen,
by which alone East Anglia could be approached without
great difficulty, must have presented a formidable obstacle to
the usual predatory inroads which constituted so large a part of
the warfare of those" ages.
1. The Devil's Ditch. — This is the most easterly of these
remarkable works, and by far the greatest although not the
longest of them. It extends across Newmarket Heath from
the fens at Reche to the woodlands at Camois Hall near Wood
Ditton (Ditch town), and is nearly straight throughout, lying
from north-west to south-east. It is very perfect, but more
especially so at the end nearest Reche and in the neighbour-
hood of Stetchworth Park. Many gaps have been cut through
it by filling up the ditch with the materials of the bank, and
it is now impossible to determine at what dates they were
made. One called the Running Gap probably allowed the
ancient road (the Peddar Way) from Chesterford to Exning to
pass ; but concerning this I must refer to the remarks already
made. Another permitted the Icknield Way to pass ; and the
others have been made for purposes which it is not now easy to
point out. The first mention of it with which I am acquainted
is that King Edward the elder fought a battle near to it (inter
B. 7
98
duo fossata sancti Eadmundi) in the year 902, as recorded by
Matthew of Westminster {Flores Hist fol. 268). The other
ditch was doubtless the Balsham Dyke. According to measure-
ments made by Sir H. Dryden and communicated to the Rev.
C. H. Hartshorne, the bank is 18 feet above the level of the
country, 30 feet above the bottom of the ditch, and 12 feet in
width at the top ; the width of the ditch is 20 feet ; the length
of the slope of the bank on its eastern side is 30 feet, and that
of the bank and ditch together 46 feet. But these measure-
ments differ considerably from those made by Mr A. J, Kempe,
F.S.A., and communicated to the Society of Antiquaries in
March, 1843. He states that at a little to the south of the
Cambridge and Newmarket Road "the vallum presents an
escarpment inclined at an angle of 70 degrees, which, measured
along the slope, is 90 feet in length. On the top of the vallum
is a cursus or way about 18 feet in width." The ditch is
certainly very different in its proportions in different parts, and
may have been so originally. I am inclined to prefer Sir H.
Dryden s measurements as being nearest to the truth in most
parts, although in some those of Mr Kempe are more nearly
correct. Measurements of this kind are very difficult to make
with complete accuracy. The part measured by Mr Kempe is
certainly far less altered by filling up and degradation than is
usual. It is a most magnificent work there. In its more
perfect parts it probably is very nearly of its original form and
size, as its surface has apparently never been disturbed since
the turf first grew over it. At Stetchworth there is a rather
large and almost square camp close to its western side, which
may have been Roman. At Reche coins of Constans, and of
the type bearing URBS ROMA, have been found ; in Bottisham
Fen, Roman vessels and also bronze fibulae; in Burwell Fen,
Roman vessels and a coin of Alexander Severus and Domitianus.
These places lie north and south, and at a short distance from
Reche. The Rev. J. Hailstone had a small Roman bronze key
99
found at Anglesey Abbey, and the late Lord Braybrooke a
small Roman vessel dug up at DuUingham.
2. The Fleam or Balsham Dyke. — This is seven miles
to the west of the Devil's Ditch. It is not straight like the
Devil's Ditch, but considerably curved in several parts of its
course, to meet the requirements of the ground. It commenced
at Fen Ditton (named from this Ditch, as was Wood Ditton,
from the Devil's Ditch), probably close to the river Cam, just
below the church, and may still be traced along the road to
Quy, which is formed in part below its bank and in part upon
it. At Quy bridge we lose sight of it, indeed Wilbraham Fen
was a sufficient defence from that point until we arrive at Great
Wilbraham. At about half a mile to the south of the latter
place it commences again, and may be followed (although much
reduced by cultivation) running due south to Shardlow's Well,
near Fulbourn. It then shows itself in all its greatness, and
continues in beautiful preservation for several miles to the
south-east, until approaching Balsham it is again much injured.
The depth of this ditch from the top of the bank is now, in its
best preserved part, about 20 feet. The detached part near
Ditton is not quite two miles in length, but the other portion,
extending from Wilbraham to Balsham, is not less than six
miles long. It crosses the supposed line of the Icknield Way
near to a tumulus called Mutlow Hill, and is said to have been
filled up to allow it to pass ; but of that, however probable it
may be, there is no proof As has been already stated, the
Peddar Way seems to have passed it at the point where it
forms an angle at Shardlow's Well, and where also it has been
levelled at some former period.
Here again we have a line of defence drawn from the wood-
lands across an open chalky district to the fens. We also see
how advantage was taken of the fenny spot near Wilbraham to
avoid the necessit}^ of making about two miles of artificial
defence. It must be remembered that at the ancient period
7—2
100
when these ditches were made, the fens consisted probably of a
series of islands surrounded by morasses and lakes, although
not so wet as they became in the middle ages from the silting
up of the outfalls of the rivers which pass through them ; that
a nearly detached piece of fen, like that at .Wilbraham, was
almost always flooded and was very probably a permanent lake ;
and that the Cam and other rivers ran for many miles above
the true fen districts through a continuous, although often
narrow, line of marshes \ If then a fortification, was made
extending from the edge of the fen, or of the fenny banks of the
Cam, or one of its tributaries, across the open belt of country
until it reached the extensive woodlands lying towards the
south-east, a very perfect security would be obtained against
the cattle-driving propensities of the neighbours of those who
made the ditch. ' We have seen that this is what was done in
the case of the two ditches already noticed, and such will also
be found to be the fact in the two instances which remain to be
described.
3. The Bkent: or Pampisford Ditch — This is only
about one mile and three quarters in length, and of slight
depth. It begins at a place called Brent-ditch End at Pam-
pisford, and extends in a nearly south-east direction through
the plantations of Pampisford Hall. It may be traced to a
spot close to Abington Park, but did not quite certainly ter-
minate there, for considerable changes have been made in the
arrangement of the ground : as, however, the woodland com-
menced thereabouts it probably did not extend much beyond
that spot. Mr Hartshorne says that " it has no bank on either
side," but that " the vallum was on the same side as that of
the other dykes," viz. the eastern. I do not quite understand
1 A good idea of the fen islands may be obtained from the map, derived
from a survey made in the year 1604, and published in Colonel John ^
Armstrong's History of the Namgation of the Port of King's Lynn and
qf Cambridge. Fol. Loudon, 1767.
101
this remark, but an examination of it near Pampisford Hall,
where it is in the best preservation, has shown that there is a
low but well-marked bank on its western side, and no trace of
one on the eastern. Mr Beldam however considered the earth
to have been thrown out equally on both sides, though possibly
the elevation on the western side is slightly the greatest. In
the winter when the trees are leafless this is well seen. The
turnpike-road which now represents the Icknield Way crosses
it, and the ditch is filled up by the side of the road. This
might "be taken for the place where the old way crossed, was it
not known (as I learned from the late W. P. Hamond, Esq. of
Pampisford Hall) to be of recent formation. Dr Mason states
(Gough's Camden, 141), that " towards the middle it has been
filled up for the Icknield Way to pass over it"; and the spot
referred to by him must be the site of the present road, as
there is no other gap.
At Brent-ditch End a marshy district commences, which is
connectecj with and continued along the course of the river Rhe,
or Cam, until it joins the great level of the fens.
4. The Ekand or Heydon Ditch. — It commences at
the southern end of a tract of fen called Melbourn Common
just at the spot where the brook (which is connected with a
branch of the river Cam) that flows through the common rises
at several beautiful springs. At that point its rampart and fosse
were recently very conspicuous, but the latter is rendered less
apparent by a hedge having been planted in it. It may be
traced over the sliglitly undulating country for about two miles
to Heydon Grange, and then up the hill for another mile to the
village of Heydon.
The vallum, which was lofty, is on the eastern side, but it
has been nearly levelled and the ditch filled up as far as Heydon
Grange ; and the remainder has been more or less levelled by
the filling of the ditch and lowering of the rampart. When
last I saw it, now at least 30 years since, a small part of the
102
rampart close to the place where it is crossed by the road from
Foulmire to Barley retained its coating of turf, but I believe
that even that small part of this ditch has since been destroyed.
The measurements of this ditch are very difficult to determine,
owing to the destructive agency of time, and more especially of
modern agriculture. In places the rampart had at least seven
feet of vertical elevation above the ground level. On the
whole this ditch is, like the three already described, a very
remarkable and interesting work. Mr Beldam estimated that
the entire width of this work '' from the western edge of the
ditch to the eastern edge of the vallum, must have been at
least 80 feet." Near to Heydon Grange, where it crosses the
Icknield Way, he "ran a trench across the road, as near as
possible to the point of junction, and where (if any) the ditch
must have been," and "found a solid and undisturbed bottom
at the depth of about 2 J feet ; from which the inference seems
certain that the road existed before the dyke." The road re-
ferred to is not the Roman way but the British Icknield way.
The late Lord Bray brook e discovered on the summit of the
hill at Heydon a chamber. " At the depth of 4 feet [the
workmen] struck on three walls built with bricks of solid
clunch-chalk, so as to present a longitudinal cul de sac. On
clearing this of loose soil (apparently some kind of ash) the
chamber appeared about 10 feet deep from the top. 9 long
by 5 broad ; the centre being occupied by a species of altar in
solid clunch, attached to the end wall at the narrow or cross
wall. All round three sides of this there was a passage with
just room to squeeze round between it and the wall on the
three sides; in the centre of this, on the tioor, there was a
gutter 3 inches in diameter. The remains taken from this
excavation were : a good bronze bracelet, in good preservation ;
two or three iron instruments ; one coin of Constantinus II., in
brass ; and a great many bullocks' horns" {Jour. Archceol. Assoc.
III. 340).
103
104
In the next volume of the same Journal (iv. 76) Mr Joseph
Clarke gave the illustrations of this curious work, reproduced
on the preceding page by the kind permission of the Association.
He describes "the bottom or floor," B, as consisting of "lumps,
of clunch forming a hard conglomerate; on this floor, at the
northern part of the building, is another raised smaller portion,
C [the altar of Lord Braybrooke's account], of the same material
and about a foot in height. Around three sides of the floor, B,
the fourth side at G being so disturbed as to defy exact lo-
cation (but I judge that there could be none), is a trench, A,
which was found filled with charcoal, ashes, &c. ; it is about 18
inches deep, and about as much wide, terminating abruptly at
E, in a peculiar, narrow, small, deep channel, not more than
two or three inches in width." " Surrounding the whole is a
roughly built wall, composed of irregular pieces of clunch [hard
lower chalk] rudely squared; it is about four feet high from
the bottom of the trench and forms one side of it. The corner,
F, presents an appearance of arching, which suggests the idea
of its having been domed... ; but if this supposition be correct,
it must have been very low, the springing of the overhanging
blocks of chalk being not more than 2' 6" from the floor, B."
But this curious work had doubtless no connection with the
Ditch, and I have seen it stated to be one of the terminal marks of
the Roman Agrimensores, concerning whom and their work an
interesting account will be found in the ArchcBol. Association-
Journal (xxvii. 268).
Dr Guest considered the Brand Ditch to have been made at
the period of the second great Belgic conquest (c. B.c, 90) ; the
Pampisford Ditch about A. D. 30 ; the Fleam Ditch in the seventh
century ; and the Devil's Ditch at the close of the ninth century
(Archwol. Journ. xi. 393).
[o. Foss or Devil's Dyke in Norfolk. — At the edge of
my map there will be seen two detached ditches and banks
which are much slighter than the ditches of Canibridgeshire.
105
The bank of the southern of them was about nine feet thick
with the ditch on its eastern side. The height of the bank above
the ditch can scarcely have exceeded seven feet. The northern
ditch also has its trench towards the east, and it was shallower.
The bank (excluding the trench) is about seven feet high.
Mr Woodward, in his map of Roman Norfolk, marks this as
being a British road from Brandon by Oxburg to Narburgh
Camp ; but his view does not appear to be borne out by the
course it seems really to take. It has more probably been a
line of defence, like the Cambridgeshire ditches ; for it com-
mences abruptly at the river side at Brandon, not being dis-
coverable on the south side of the fen, and towards the north
it terminates at the fenny district of the Stoke River, near
Cranwick : this is the southern part called Foss or Devil's Dyke.
The northern part, also called Devil's Dyke, appears similarly
to cross a dry district between fens. It probably commenced
at Beachamwell by the fen side, not at Oxburg, which lies to
the south of this fen district, and extended to Narburgh on the
fen by the side of the river Nar. See Map in the Archceologia,
xxiii., or Woodward's Norwich Castle.]
V. THE CAR DYKE.
To the north of Peterborough the ancient ditch or canal
called the Gar Dyke is well known, and therefore, as that
part of it is altogether out of our county, no description
of it is requisite in this treatise. Its channel is stated to
have there been 60 feet in width, with a broad flat bank upon
each side (Rep. Sc. of Assoc. Archit. Soc. i. 338).
To the south of Peterborough the state of things is very
different : indeed it may be doubted if any antiquary, except
Stukeley, has felt convinced that it really did extend into
Cambridgeshire.
106
The origin of the Gar Dyke is altogether unknown, although
it is perhaps rightly ascribed to the Romans. Stukeley thought
that "Car" was a contraction of Carausius, to whom he referred
nearly every ancient work in this part of England. If we
could see any proof that he did perform even a small part of
what Stukeley attributes to him, he would indeed deserve to
be considered as a benefactor to the country, and lauded as he
was by his above-named historian. We know very little con-
cerning him ; the history of his time being lost : and it seems
peculiarly bold to attempt the compilation of an account of his
reign from his coins alone. It cannot be denied that Stukeley
has shewn singular ingenuity in the attempt that he made to
do this, and the extensive learning and large collection of facts
recorded in his book must always make it of great value to the
antiquary.
Stukeley, as has been already stated, called Cambridge
Granta, and supposed that it was founded by Carausius at
the southern end of the Gar Dyke, which he considered either
to have been made, or, at any rate, restored by him from a
useless state. He supposed it to have been formed to act as a
navigable canal from the corn-country of this part of England
to York. He states that the same Emperor established Stour-
bridge Fair as part of this great plan of internal communication.
I confess that this, and many other things in the M^dalUc
History of Carausius, are quite beyond my powers of belief
The emperor Julian, according to his own written testimony,
{Orat ad S. P. Q. Atheniensem) employed no less than six
hundred vessels in the exportation of corn and flour to supply
the towns and fortresses on the Rhine at about the middle of
the fourth century. To meet a sudden call of this kind the
cultivation of Britain must have been far more general in the
time of the Romans than we moderns have usually been inclined
to allow. Gibbon (ed. 1825, ii. 427) thought that each vessel
might be of 70 tons' burthen (a very small allowance), and
107
thus calculated that they were capable of exporting 120,000
quarters of grain.
One of Stukeley's remarks concerning Stourbridge Fair may
amuse the readers of this treatise. He says, "Memorials of
the antiquity of the fair, and of the religious observances there
performed in Roman times, are kept up in several particulars ;
as of the Arch-flamen of Granta, in the Vice- Chancellor of the
University, proclaiming it with much solemnity : of divine ser-'
vice, and a sermon celebrated in a pulpit set up for the purpose,
on the two Sundays, in the chief part of the fair called the
Duddery." (Caraus. i. 206.)
An account of this very important fair will be found in
Nichols's Bihlioth. Topog. Britan. (v. 73), where a plan of the
fair is given, and a number of deeds relating to it. It was
granted to the Hospital for Lepers by King John, and the place
was then called Steresbrig. See also Rogers's Hist, of Agric.
Prices (i. 141). He considers it to have been by far the most
important in the east and south of England, and gives a full
account of it. It occupied a space of about half a mile square,
and separate streets were appropriated to separate trades. It
lasted for three weeks, commencing on the 18th of September.
A curious account of the fair in 1789 will be found in Gunning's
Reminiscences (i. 162 — 173).
But to proceed to the consideration of the supposed southern
part of the Gar Dyke. It seems highly probable that there
was a navigable cut through the district forming the edge of
the fens, and one of the courses laid down by Stukeley may
very likely belong to it. Of the two routes to be found de-
scribed in his works, it is best totally to neglect that given in
Part I. (pp. 199, 200) of the Medallic History, for in Part 11.
(p. 137), which was published several years after the first
part, he has quite changed his views on the subject,
and reverted nearly to the account which he had long before
given in his Paleographia. He says, "just below Cambridge
108
the artificial cut opens into the river, runs along the side of it,
taking the benefit of higher water, for half a mile " {Gar. 19^) ;
and it may be presumed, therefore, that he supposed it to
commence near Milton. "A little above Waterbeche," as he
says in another place {Paleog. ii. 38), "begins our famous Gar
DyJce. The bed of this artificial cut is very plain from hence,
quite across the fen, through Cottenham parish until it enters
the Old Ouse." Along this river it passed to Earith. He then
continues it "by Ramsey to Suard's Dyke; then the boats
passed by Ben wick, where Roman coins have been found; so
by Whittlesey Mere, or some cut by the side of it, to Horsey
Bridge, where Roman coins too are found, and so to Peter-
borough river" {Paleog. ii. 38). By this he probably means,
that from Earith it followed the West Water to Benwick, near
Ramsey Mere, but in Cambridgeshire. In the second part of
the Medallic History, he says, that "at Waterbech it begins
with a fair and large artificial channel, proceeding by the wind-
mill north-westward. The ditch now has water in it in several
places" (p. 133). Singularly, Dugdale considered this as a
branch of the Cam ; his words are : — " The river Grant, by a
fair channel passing from Beach to Chare Fen, in Cottenham,
and so into Ouse, was diverted; and by a straighter course
turned down by another branch of the same river to Harrimere,
where it loseth the name " {Embank. 373). Any persons who
have carefully examined the country will I am convinced agree
with me in believing that Dugdale was here depending upon
incorrect information. Stukeley remarks that the country
people had a notion that the Ouse originally ran by this course
into the Cam," but adds that it has "not the least appearance
of a natural river," and I quite agree with him.
Near Waterbeche the channel of the supposed Gar Dyke is
still very apparent, and, after leaving the fenny land by the
Cam, consists of an enormously broad and deep artificial cut
having not the least resemblance to a natural watercourse. It
109
seems undoubtedly to be a very ancient and magnificent work.
It is called by the people the Old Tillage or Twilade. Now to
twilade means in some local dialects to "load, unload, then
return for a second and take up the first load" {HalliweWs
Dictionary) ; just as is done at what is called a Portage in the
Hudson's Bay Territory. Can this have been a portage betweea
the Cam and waters to the east of Cottenham (in what is called
Cottenham Common on the Ordnance Map) where there is a
large channel even now extending from Goose Farm to Lockspit
Hall on the banks of the Old Ouse or West Water ? Stukeley
says that it " runs by Chare Fen in the parish of Cottenham
and passes into the present river called the Old Ouse, going
to the great wooden bridge upon Audrey causeway, whence
it goes along the present channel of the river westwards to
Earith" {Gar. i. 133) ; but I cannot find the position of Chare
Fen. It is not marked on Wall's map or noticed in his book.
♦'At Earith the Car Dyke, entering Huntingdonshire, crosses
the Huntingdon river and proceeds northwards in that
stream now called the West Water to Benwick, then by that
stream called the Old Nen or Whittlesey Dyke to Peterborough "
{Gar. ii. 136). Notice has already been taken of Gnut's Dyke
supposed to have been a road in connection with the navigation
in this part of its course, and the King Street to have been of
similar use to the north of Peterborough. Dugdale remarks
concerning the channel by the side of this road, that " about
two miles distant from the north-east side of the above-specified
mere [Whittlesey], there is a memorable channel cut through
the body of the fen, extending itself from near Ramsey to
Peterborough, and is called King's Delph. The common
tradition is, that King Canutus, or his queen, being in some
peril, in their passage from Ramsey to Peterborough, by reason
of the boisterousness of the waves on Whittlesey Mere, caused
this ditch to be first made. And therewith do some of our
historians agree who say thus : 'Anno Domini MXXXIV. Cnuta,
110
rex potentissimus, viam in marisco, inter Ramsey et Burgum,
quod King's Delph dicitur, ut periculum magnorum stagnoriim
vitaretur, eruderavit ' (Matth. Westm. Annates) . But how to
reconcile this testimony with what I meet with three-score
years before, I know not ; which is that King Edgar confirming
to the monks of Peterborough the fourth part of Whittlesey
Mere says [the boundaries extend] * orientaliter ad Kinge's
Delf/ " ■ (Embank 363.) (See Codex Diplom. ^vi Saxon, iii. 93.)
After these long and rather complicated extracts, I must now
leave my readers to form their own opinion concerning the
probability of these very ancient cuts being part of a great
plan of the Romans in continuation southward of the Gar
Dyke. It seems improbable that the Saxons can have made
them at so early a period as that at which one part of them at
least is shown to have existed ; and the traditional name of
King's Delph, in conjunction with the King's Street to the
north, may add weight to the supposition of both being of
Roman origin; and we have already seen that many Roman
antiquities have been found near the line of this supposed
canal, as in Cottenham Parish, near Haddenham and at
Earith/
VI. OLD COURSE OF THE RIVERS.
Before concluding this sketch of the ancient lines of com-
munication and earth-works of Cambridgeshire, it may be
desirable to point out the old courses of the rivers that pass
through the Fens. They are the Nen, the Great Ouse, the
Cam, and the Little Ouse rivers. The Nen on arriving at
Peterborough turned to the right, and making a circuit through
Ill
Whittlesey, Ugg and Ramsey Meres, passed then in a pretty
direct course by March to Wisbech. At Peterborough it
seems to have thrown off a branch to join the Welland near
Croyland.
The great Ouse enters the fens near Earith, at which place
it formerly forked, its chief branch flowing by Harrimere, Ely
and Littleport, then by what is now called the Welney river
to Wisbech, where, in conjunction with the Nen, its waters
reached the sea. The other branch of the Ouse ran from
Earith to Ben wick, where it joined the main channel of the
Nen. Both these channels are now nearly or quite closed to
the waters of the Ouse, which are carried by the Bedford rivers
in a direct line to Denver, and there poured into the channel
of the Little Ouse to reach the sea at Lynn.
A little above Cambridge the Cam or Grant river is formed
by the junction of three small streams, called Gam, and Rhey
and one nameless. Gam and Rhe are ancient Celtic names
meaning Gam, a crooked or meandering stream, Rhe^ a swift
stream from rhedig to run ; these terms are very descriptive
of our streams. I am indebted for these interpretations of the
words to the late very eminent Welsh scholars the Rev. John
Williams (ab Ithel), and the Rev. R. Williams of Rhydycroesau
{Arch. Gamhrensis, Ser. 3, iii. 219).
The Cam, although it changes its name to Ouse at Har-
rimere, where it originally joined that river on its way to
Wisbech, does now really extend by way of Ely and Prickwillow
to Denver ; for, except in case of very great floods, not a drop
of Ouse water enters it before that place is reached.
The Little Ouse is the present channel of the Great Ouse
from Denver to Lynn.
It is thus seen that nearly all the water which reached the
great level found its natural outlet at Wisbech (a word rea-
sonably derived from Ouse beach), where originally the channel
was deep enough to afford a natural drainage to the country.
112
In process of time this outlet became choked, and the rivers
changed their course or were diverted by artificial means.
I have now only to add an expression of my hope that this
attempt may lead others far better qualified for the task than
I can pretend to be, to follow up the study of the traces left
by the ancient inhabitants of our district, and to cause the
production, by some other member of the University of a more
complete treatise on this interesting subject.
^
INDEX.
Ad Fines, 13
Akeman Street, 14
^ near Tring, 26
Akerman Street, at Ely, 25
Aldreth Causeway, 79
Ancient Ditches, 95
Antonine Itinerary, 12
Appleborough, 88
Arbury, 15
Asliwell Street, 57
Aswich Grange, or Toft, 74
Balsham Dyke, 92
Barham Hall, 34
Barraway, 77
Bartlow Hills, 35
Beeston Berrys, 92
Belsar's HiU, 80
Bottisham Fen, 98
Bourn, 49
Brand Ditch, 101
Brent Ditch, 100
British Eoad at Grantchester, 44
British Shields, 16
Bullock Eoad, 91
Burnt Fen, 18
Burwell Fen, 98
Bury, Huntingdonshire, 86
Bury Steads, 76
Caer Graunt, 10, 11
Cesar's Camp, 92
Camboritum, 10, 24
Cambridge, 3
— Ancient Eoads through, 14
— Bridge, 7
— Description of Eoman Sta-
tion at, 3
— Eoman Causeway at, 26
— Eoman Coins at, 6
— Eoman Inscriptions found
near, 41
B.
Camp at Arbury, 15
— Barham Hall, 34
— Belsar's Hill, 80
— Galley Hill, 92
— Granham, 51
— King's Hedges, 14
— Eing HiU 66
— Sandy, 93
— Starbury Hill, 66
— Stetchworth, 98
— Vandlebury, 33 .
Car Dyke, 105
Chatteris, 90
Chatteris Ferry, 90 •
Chesterfield, 98
Chesterford, 50
Chesterton, 12, 94
Chippenham, 75
Chronicle Hills, 63
Cnut's Dyke, 95
Coldham, 88
Cohie, 76
Comberton, Villa at, 22
— Maze at, 23
Cottenham, 82
Coveney, 16
Cuckoo Lane, 81
Denver, 70, 71
Devil's Ditch, 97
Devil's Dyke in Norfolk, 104
Ditches, 95
Brand, or Heydon Ditch, 101
Brent, or Pampisford Ditch, 100
Devil's Ditch, 97
Fleam, or Balsham Dyke, 99
Durobrivae, 53
Durolipons, 53
Earith, 76
Elloe, 74
Ehn, 74
8
114
Ely, 16
Ely to Spalding, 73
Erming Street, 52
Exning, 65
Fen Koad, 68
Fleam Dyke, 99
Fleet, 74
Fordey, 78
Fobs Dyke, 104
Foxton, 63
Fulbourn, 31
Galley Hill, 92
Gedney Hill, 74
Giant's Hill, 81
Glassmore, 72
Godmanchester, 53
Gogmagog Hills, 33
Granham, 51
Granta, 10
Grantabrigge, 11
Grantchester, 44
Grunty Fen, 18
Haddenham, 76, 77
Harborough Banks, 57
Haregate, 89
Hauxton, 52
Henxwell, 58
Hergate, 89
Hey HiU, 21
Hey don, chamber near, 102
Heydon Ditch, 101
How's House, 35, 40
Huckeridge, 51
Iceanum, 66
Iciani, 13
Icknield Way, 55
Inscriptions near Cambridge, 41
Ireton's Way, 70
Itineraries of Antoninus, 12
Kiln at Fulbourn, 31
King's Delph, 109
King's Hedges, 14
Lidgate, 75
Limbury Hill, 62
Limlow Hill, 62
Linton, 34
Litlington, 58
Maney, 72
March, 42
Mareway, 21, 65, 81
Maze at Comberton, 23
Melbourn, 62
Moat Way, 79
Mutlow Hill, 67
Newmarket, 55
Newton, 89
Nordelph, 70
Old Causeway Dyke, 73
Old course of rivers, 110
Old Spalding Gate, 89
Ousden, 75
Pampisford Ditch, 100
Peddar Way, 64
Port Way, 22, 65
Prickwillow, 18
Eampton, 81
Beche, 97
Eing Hill, 66
Kivers, old course of, 110
Eoads: Akeman Street, 14
— — Street, near Tring, 26
— Aldreth Causeway, 79
— Ashwell Street, 57
— Bishops Stortford to Braugh-
ing, 68
— BuUock Eoad, 91
— Bury to Spalding, 88
— Cambridge to Braughing, 51
— Cambridge to Chesterford, 50
— Cnut's Dyke, 109
— Ely to Spalding, 73
— Erming Street, 52
— Fen Eoad, 68
— Grantchester and Barton, 43
— Icknield Way, 55
— Mare Way, 21, 80
— Moat Way, 79
— Peddar Way, 64
— Port Way, 22
— Sand Way, 81
— Sawtry Way, 75 ^
— Stangate, 53
— Street Way, 65
— Suffolk Way, 75
116
Eoads; Via Devana, 26
— Wool Street, 34
Roman Antiquities at
Bartlow Hills, 35
Bottisham Fen, 98
Bourn, 49
Burnt Fen, 18
Burwell Fen, 98
Caldecot, 58
Cambridge, 4, 26
Castor, 54
Chatteris, 90
Chronicle Hills, 63
Coldham, 88
Comberton, 22
Cottenham, 82
Dam Hill, 48
Doddington, 88
Earitb, 76
Elm, 74
Exning, 65
Foxton, 63
Fulbourn, 31
Girton College, 37
Glassmore, 72
Gravel Hill, 48
Gravel Hill Farm, 35
Guilden Morden, 61
Haddenham, 76, 77
Hadstock, 35
Harborough Banks, 57
Henxwell, 58
Heydon, 101
Hey Hill, 21
Lidgate, 75
Limbury Hill, 62
Linton, 35
Litlington, 58
March, 72
Melbourn, 62
Mutlow Hill, 67
Over, 82
Shefford, 25
Somersham, 78, 79
Stoney, 72
Thorney, 72
Toft. 49
Roman Antiquities at
Trumpington, 48
Tydd St Mary, 89
Waldersey, 88
Walpole St Peter, 90
Willingham, 84, 86
Wimblington, 88
Wisbech, 89
Roman Burial-place at Litlington, 53
Roman Causeway at Cambridge, 26
at Birkenhead, 28
in Lancashire, 28
at Kincardine, 28
Roman Coins :
Appleborough, 88
Aswich Grange, or Toft, 74
Bartlow Hills, 35
Benwick, 88
Boxworth, 42
Burnt Fen, 19
Cambridge, 6
Castle Camps, 34
Castor, 54
Chatteris, 91
Chesterton, 16
Comberton, 23
Cottenham, 82
Ehn, 74
Exning, 65
Five-barrow Field, 57
Fleet, 74
Gedney Hill, 74
Grantchester, 44
Guilden Morden, 61
Haddenham, 84
Heydon, 64
Hinxton, 63
Horseheath, 35
How's House, 35
King's Hedges, 15
Landbeche, 16
Lidgate, 75
Limbury HiU, 62
Litlington, 59
Madingley, 43
March, 72
Mutlow Hill, 67
116
Koman Coins :
Newmarket Heath, 67
Newton, 89
Ouseden, 75
Over, 82
Kecbe, 97
Shudy Camps, 34
Starbury Hill, 66
Stoney, 72
Sutton St Edmund's, 74
Thorney, 72
Upwell, 73
Vandlebury, 33
Waldersey, 88
Walsoken, 90
Welney, 73
West Wickham, 34
Whaplode Drove, 74
Whittlesford, 63
Wicken, 78
Willingham, 86
Wimblington, 88
Wisbech, 88
Koman Fort at Grantchester, 44
Eoman mscriptions near Cambridge, 41
Roman sea-bank, 89
Roman Station at
Brancodunum, 19
Bury, Huntingdonshire, 86
Camboritum, 10
Cambridge, 3
Chesterford, 50
Godmanchester, 53
Grantchester, 44
Durobrivse, 53
Durolipons, 53
Ely, 16
SaleneB, 92
Sandy, 92
Roman Villa near
Comberton, 22
Roman Villa near
Linton, 35
Litlington, 58
Royston, 57
Salenae, 91
Sand Way, 81
Sawston, 51
Sawtry Way, 75, 79
Shefford, 25
Shields, British, 16
Soham, 75
Somersham, 78, 79
Stangate, 53
Starbury Hill, 66
Stetchworth, 98
Stoney, 72
Stourbridge Fair, 107
Street Way, 65
Sutton St Edmund's, 74
Suffolk Way, 75
Thetford (Camb.), 76
Thorney, 72
Toft, 49
Trumpington, 48
Twenty-pence Ferry, 80
Two-penny Loaves, 30
Tydd St Mary, 89
Upwell, 73
Vandlebury, 33
Via Devana, 26
— supposed branch to Chester-
ton, 30
Waldersey, 88
Walpole St Peter, 90
Walsoken, 90
Welney, 73
Whaplode Drove, 74
Wimblington, 88
Wisbech, 88, 89
Witchford, 76
Wool Street, 34
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