ROMANO-BRITISH SETTLEMENT AT CHIGWELL. 7
built his defended house and gathered fellow-soldiers and native
British dependants around, till a village grew and thrived. Such
grants of land possibly served a double purpose, rewarding the
faithful or fortunate soldier, and providing a series of semi-
fortified posts along the fruitful valleys or great highways.
An abundance of Roman pottery having been found in Essex
and elsewhere, it may be considered that this little collection is
hardly worth exhibiting; but it is of local interest as showing
the site of a Romano-British settlement near by us, and will,
perhaps, not be without interest to visitors from other parts,
remembering that the articles have been buried for, perhaps, 1,600
or 1,700 years, till revealed by the spade of the excavator.
In the valley of the Roding, to the east of the stream, a belt
of gravel extends more or less continuously from near Woolston
Hall, Chigwell, for a considerable distance northwards. Gravel-
pits have been dug here and there for parish purposes throughout
the line for many years ; this digging has caused the discovery of
the pottery, etc., which is now exhibited.
Those who are familiar with the district will find the plan a
sufficient indication of the site of the settlement, or, rather,
cemetery.
To those who are not well acquainted with the neighbourhood
it may be explained that, in passing from Chigwell to Abridge,
Woolston Hall will be noted at the twelfth mile-stone from
London, and in the second field beyond the hall depressions (at
A on plan) will be observed. These are remains of old workings
for gravel, which, fifty years ago, yielded some of the vessels now
on view. The next field has more recently been worked through
nearly its whole length ; it is from the soil above these gravel-pits
(B and C on plan) that later "finds" have come. In the great
pit (marked D) coins and bronze were found many years ago.
After the discoveries of 1845, little interest was taken in the
matter till during comparatively recent years, when the Rev.
J. W. Maitland, the writer, and others have been in the habit of
visiting the diggers at work, and encouraging them to reserye any
vessels or scraps for inspection ; but it is greatly to be feared that
in past years much pottery has been smashed, and that bushels
of fragments have been treated as rubbish and thrown away.
Judging by the character of the vessels and the paucity of
bronzes or coins of value, it may be assumed that the settlement
was somewhat poor and unimportant. That it was not of late
date in the Roman period may be judged by the almost total
absence of burials by inhumation. Except in one instance, the
remains indicate the destruction of the bodies by fire. In France
and Italy* (and presumably in Britain) burial by inhumation
became general in the fourth century ; we may, therefore, not be
* Cochet's La Normandie Soutervaine (1854), p. 148.