A HISTORY OF WORCESTERSHIRE
already in existence in the early part of the Roman occupation. If we accept the Pitchcroft scoriæ as Roman, we could add to our conception of Roman Worcester the notion of iron-smelting, though we should be unable to explain why such an industry arose at a place then so unimportant.
But we cannot claim for ancient Worcester any reputation as a centre of a potting industry. The kiln found in Diglis testifies only to homely wares produced for casual local needs, such as we meet at hundreds of other sites in Roman Britain, and, as no good potter's clay exists in the neighbourhood of Worcester, we could expect nothing else. The natural earthenware of the district is seen, for instance, in a reddish ware, which is somewhat like modern flowerpot ware. Specimens have been found freely at Diglis, Kempsey and elsewhere, both in and beyond the bounds of Worcestershire.
3. Places of Settled Occupation: Droitwich, etc.
To this small town or village at Worcester we have to add a few other instances of what we may suppose to be permanent civilian occupation, although our knowledge is in no single case adequate to a proper description.
(i) Droitwich. The Roman remains at Droitwich appear to lie mostly on the north-western side of the town, near but on the north side of the little river Salwarp, and close to the canal and the railway to Stoke Prior; they have indeed been found principally in the construction of either canal or railway (fig. 4). In 1847 when the railway was made, definite traces of a dwelling-house were found in Bay's Meadow, close to Bury Hill Farm and the junction of the Stoke Prior lie with the Oxford, Worcester and Wolverhampton line, and on the north limb of the former, now disused. These traces comprised two tessellated pavements, foundations in red sandstone, tiles, pottery (including Samian), fibulæ and other bronze objects, iron nails, coins and so forth. Both mosaics were much damaged, but a piece of one was secured for the Worcester Museum and shows a geometrical pattern in red, white and bluish grey (fig. 5). East of this site, at Ellin's Saltworks in the Vines, pottery has been found. Coins have occurred at various places along the Stoke Prior railway: they include a few of the first and second centuries, more of the late third and fourth, and range from Vespasian to Gratian.[1] Coins of Claudius, Nero, Galba, Hadrian and others, are said to have been found in High Street during the drainage works of 1878; and I have seen a gold coin of Galba, and a 'first brass' of Claudius from these finds.[2] It is also said that vases, coins and tiles were found in making the canal, and that remains of Roman baths have been unearthed with conduits for the supply of water;[3] but I am told that
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- ↑ Allies, Archæological Journal, iv. 73, 146; vi. 404; and Antiquities of Worcestershire, pp. 98, 101; Journal of the British Archæological Association, iii. 119; vi. 150; Wollaston Collection of Drawings of Mosaics (South Kensington Museum), No. 72; Transactions of the Worc. Naturalists' Club, i. 97.
- ↑ Transactions of the Worc. Naturalists' Club, i. 282; Kelly's Directory. The coin of Galba is Cohen, 286.
- ↑ Bainbrigge, Droitwich Salt Springs (Worcester, 1873), pp. 45, 46.
