WORCESTER.

IT is stated in Grose's" Antiquities* that "Worcester is generally allowed to have been the Bravinium of the Romans, mentioned in the twelfth journey of Antoninus, twenty-four miles from Magna, now Kenchester, in Herefordshire, and twenty-seven from Uriconium, now Wrottesleys, in Staffordshire." But it is only of late years that any satisfactory evidence has been brought to light relative to the Roman occupation of the place.

The following collections made upon the subject will, it is trusted, be found valuable, both as they respect the history of the City and County of Worcester, and also as adding to the general store of information relative to the olden times.

In the year 1829, upon excavations being made to lay the basement of the house in the centre of Britannia Square, in Worcester, the foundation of a circular tower or fort of sandstone was found, about thirty feet in diameter; while in the rubbish upwards of fifty Roman copper coins were discovered, some of Constantius, others of Constantine the Great, Decentius,

* Vol. vi., Supp.

+ This agrees with Stukeley's account. Gale says Rushbury, Horsley says Ludlow, and others say Lentwardine.

This agrees with Horsley's account. Gale and Stukeley say Magna means Old Radnor, and that Ariconium means Kenchester.

§ Gale, Stukeley, and Horsley say Wroxeter, in Shropshire.

It is also said that silver coins were found there, of Julia Mamæa, Julian, and Constans; but as these were casually brought to me, I cannot vouch so well for them.

B

Claudius Gothicus, and Magnentius; but the greater part too · · decayed to be deciphered*. This tower or fort was, most probably, one of those which Tacitus states that the Roman Proprætor, Ostorius Scapula, constructed on the Severn, in the reign of the Emperor Claudius the First; they were erected on the east bank, to check the Britons on the other side of the river. John Ross, a writer on antiquities, who flourished in the reign of Edward the Fourth, has reported Constantius Cæsar as the founder of Worcester, on the credit of an old British chronicle he met with; and Andrew Yarranton, in his work entitled "England's Improvement by Sea and Land," &c. (the first part of which was published in 1677, and the second in 1698), states in the second part, page 162, as quoted by Dr. Nasht, inter alia, as follows:- -"He says he found out a vast quantity of Roman cinders near the walls of the city of Worcester; and within one hundred yards of such walls there was dug up one of the hearths of the Roman foot-blasts, it being then firm and in order, and was seven foot deep in the earth; and by the side of the work there was found out a pot of Roman coine, to the quantity of a peck, some of which was presented to Sir Dugdale, and part thereof is in the King's closet;-by all which circumstances it clearly appears that the Romans made iron in England, and as far up the river Severn as the city of Worcester, where as yet there are vast quantities remaining."

Dr. Nash (in the absence of further evidence) strongly expressed his opinion that these were not Roman relics; but in the corrections and additions to the second volume of his " History,” page 97, he relaxed a little upon the point, and stated that "In June 1797 an underground drain was made, the whole length of the Broad Street, Worcester, and about the middle of the street from the Cross, near the house of Mr. Morton, cabinet maker, not far from the Bell Inn, was found a bed of iron

* Harvey Berrow Tymbs, Esq., presented these coins to the Museum of the Worcestershire Natural History Society.

Vide Vol. ii. of Nash's "History of Worcestershire; " Appendix, p. cviii.

cinders, which extended up Mr Morton's yard, and probably on to the walls of the city, near which was a considerable iron foundery in the time of the Saxons, or perhaps, as some think, of the Romans. About two or three hundred yards from the city wall, up the river, is a place called Cinder Point, where a great quantity of the like scoriæ are found. The specimen I have is very rich in metal. The cinders at Mr. Morton's and the Bell Inn were found to extend about forty yards in breadth; and at another place, near the Cross, opposite Mr. Wilson's, about ten yards."

I have several times examined the stratum of iron scoriæ and clinkers at Cinder Point, on the east bank of the Severn, in a place called Pitchcroft, and find that the bed is extensive, and the clinkers very rich in metal. I have no doubt that this is the place referred to by Yarranton. The stratum lies by the river side about six feet deep, beneath the alluvial soil, and was most probably the rough and half-smelted ore thrown aside in the time of the Romans, they having, it is said, only foot-blasts to smelt. the ironstone.

The supposed fort of Ostorius before mentioned stood exactly opposite to Cinder Point, at the distance of about 500 yards, on a ridge of ground, just out of flood's-way, on the same side of the river, and would at all times guard the iron works. A few years ago, I saw a similar bed of scoria and clinkers in the bank of a lane between English Bicknor Church and the river Wye, in Gloucestershire. This was pointed out to me by the Rev. Edward Feild, then Rector of that parish, and now Bishop of Newfoundland; and also a mound in an adjacent pasture, from whence several years back a great quantity of clinkers were dug out, and taken to the iron works at the Forest of Dean, to be melted up again with iron ore, as such clinkers (like those at Cinder Point) are very rich in metal, and were considered greatly to improve the general mass; but it is said that on account of a new mode in smelting, they are not now used. These ancient works in Bicknor appear to have been flanked, overlooked, and

See an interesting account of the sites of Roman iron works in the abovementioned districts, by Thomas Wright, Esq., F.S.A., in the "Gentleman's Magazine," January 1852, p. 33, &c.

defended by a tower or fort, which stood at the top of the rising ground by the churchyard, and the site of which is still plainly visible. I was informed by the late Sir Samuel Rush Meyrick that the like scoria and clinkers are to be seen in the grounds adjacent to Goodrich Court.

Mr. Spriggs, of this city, has shown me a coin of Nero, dug up in his presence, in Broad Street, near the top of the street called Doldy, when the drain, referred to by Dr. Nash, was made there in 1797. This coin was struck in commemoration of the closing of the temple of Janus, in Nero's reign, which was the sixth time. On the obverse it has the portrait of the Emperor, with the inscription, NERO CLAVD. CAESAR AVG. GER. P.M. TR. P. IMP. P.P.; and the reverse contains the temple of Janus, and the inscription, PACE P.R. TERRA MARIQVE PARTA IANVM CLVSIT. S.C. This coin is very interesting, as it shows that Tacitus was wrong in his statement that the temple of Janus was not shut after the time of Augustus till the reign of Vespasian*. Paten notices a similar coin in page 113 of his work on Roman Coins, and remarks that although he was satisfied that the temple was shut by Nero, as the coin indicates, yet that the then state of the world did not justify it, and that was the reason why Tacitus and Orosius did not notice the fact.

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I have coins of Probus, Gratian, and Carausius, which were found a few years back in an excavated mass of soil upon which some old tenements stood in Doldy. In the Stranger's Guide to Worcester," published in 1828, under the name of Ambrose Florence, the above ancient part of the town is noticed in page 13, as follows:-" In the corporation book called 'Liber Legum,' made in the reign of Henry VII., it is ordered that all Walshe catell' coming to be sold be brought to Dolday;" and in page 11, it is observed that "General Roy, in his 'Military Antiquities of the Romans in Britain,' says, If, however, Worcester was really a Roman town, which is no way improbable, it seems to be that which Richard, in his Chorography, assigns to the Dobuni, under the name of Branogena; but which, in his map, he calls Brangonum. This last is evidently the same with the name Wrangon, given to Wor* Vide "Universal History," Vol. xiv., pp. 3--4.