Itinerarium curiosum (centuria II)

by William Stukeley

I find the Rigning-street way comes from Alcester, directly north and south, by Moseley, over a heath where the road appears now very broad, on the east side of the rivulet Rea: it descends Camp hill, and passes the river by the present bridge, and the valley where the low and old part of the town stood: it makes an angle in order to pass this broad meadow, directly as the Icening-street does at Newbury, or ad Spinas. No doubt but here was a station in the time of the Romans, because a convenient distance, ten miles from Etocetum: but of its name I know no footsteps. I imagine the present name derived from the great quantity of broom growing all round. Ingham signifies the dwelling upon the meadows; for the town has advanced itself but by degrees up the hill. When the Roman road has passed the valley, it turns up the first street on the right hand (Park street) to take the most convenient rise up hill, and at the end of the town falls into the present road, with its former direction to Etocetum. Probably upon Camp hill has been a camp, being by the road side, and having a fine prospect: what with the deep roads to Coventry and Warwick, here meeting the Ricning; and the inclosures, and digging for brick and tile, I could discern no signs of it. At this town is a considerable manufacture for thread. Beyond Birmingham, the Rigning-way runs upon the division between the counties of Stafford and Warwick, by Aldston.

In the forges here, three men beat together with successive strokes; which brought into my mind Virgil’s

Brontesque, Steropesque, ac nudus membra Pyracmon.

ETOCETVM.

A little to the west of where the Rigning crosses the Watling-street, south-west of Litchfield stands a little village, called Wall; south of that a quarter of a mile is Chesterfield. This is said to be the oldest city in England, by the inhabitants; and the Watling-street the oldest road. The Itinerary of Antoninus sufficiently evinces the place to be Etocetum. Part of the Rigning-way, northward hence, is very fair, with a high strait bank; part very mirey and bad. The country is sandy, clay, and full of round coggles, of which the road was composed. The Watling-street eastward hence about half a mile is inclosed in fields; but westward it appears very strait and broad. They call the Rigning the Hickling street at this place; and likewise Port-lane: it goes to Burton upon Trent. Many Roman coins found here, both great and small. Mr. Quintin, living here, has many: he owns the field called the Butts, where I saw great ruins of walls equidistant twelve foot, and twelve high, like square cellars. I saw bits of pavement there, Irish slate, Roman bricks, some pieces thus marked

. The walls are a yard thick, of strong mortar, rubble stone, &c. The Watling-street parts the two villages, Chesterfield south, and Wall north. By the side of a road going northward thence to Pipe hill, I immediately espied the Roman walls, notorious by the manner of their structure; of rag-stone, a course laid sloping this way, a course that way, with very strong and white mortar: this lies under a hedge, and the roots of old oak-trees for the length of a hundred yards, till intercepted by a dwelling-house. They say the building in Butt’s close was a temple; and probably they are not mistaken. The Watling-street at this old city goes precisely east and west: some mile-stones found by the brook running west of the city: a pretty spring there; ruins upon digging all the fields round: the brook has a broad marsh along it westward. A little below the temple, we saw the crown of a subterraneous arch in the hedge. They showed me where the Rigning-way went through a corn-field south of the castle, and passed the river west of Shenston: it is a field way still southward, and an open road north. The castle stood in the north-west angle, between the Watling and another road, going to Litchfield, upon a gentle southern declivity: the old walls are founded upon the solid rock, and much more of them was left within memory: now they pull them down to build withal. There is a gate crosses the Watling-street at the castle end, by the side of the other road. That called the Temple is upon the western declivity, much lower in elevation than the castle, which is upon the highest ground in the neighbourhood, and somewhat raised above the common level, by heaps of rubbish, and foundations, which I could discern above ground in the orchard. The place of this old city is an elevation, and has a good prospect, especially southward: Oldbury castle and Mancester are in view. Wm. Milner, at the Swan, is an antiquary, and knows the old name of the place: he showed me a Roman wall in his cellar, and says it goes far backward by the garden. No doubt there were houses all the way, on both sides the road, from the castle to the brook, which is a sweet descent westward. There was a Roman coin of gold found near Hales-Owen. Many floors, pots, and other antiquities, found on the south side the Watling-street, in the ploughed fields called Chesterfield Crofts; and a very fine red earthen ware, with figures of bucks upon them. The circumference of the castle is hardly to be found; the ground has not been dug in the yards hereabouts. The Rigning-way goes by Lyn-lane, and so passes the river west of Shenston, at Shenston nether town. This country lies upon a rock here and there interspersed, but not a good stone; but there is a quarry of good free-stone, of a brown colour, by Swinfield. I saw a Nero of Corinthian brass, and some square Roman pavements found there.

The Rigning runs on the east side of an eminence called Mawcop hill, as it passes northward hence. The building in Butts close is level at top with the pasture, except toward the declivity, where they have dug away the earth, and the great wall that ran along it. Two miles beyond Etocetum, on the top of a hill is Knave’s castle, on the south side the Watling-street: it is a large tumulus inclosed within three ditches; an entrance on the south side: it has been hollowed at top. This is in a vast moor, or common full of heath, as the nature of the soil is all the way. The Watling is very fair and strait, and in many places the ridge is perfect for a great length. A little west of the bridge, under which the river Penk crosses the Watling, are a few houses belonging to Stretton, upon an eminence. This is thought to be the

PENNOCRVCIVM.

And, no doubt, it was hereabouts, to answer the miles in the Itinerary. The village of Stretton lies a little to the north of the road; and a mile south is Brewood, another village, which they say has been an old city: it lies upon the Penk. Upon ploughing the fields they find Roman coins frequently, and much other antiquities. In that great old city, king John kept his court. A little brook runs a pasture or two below the road, and parallel to it, into the Penk, called Horse brook: it is a very full river, and the bridge is broad it runs through. The Watling-street is here east and west. Three large stone bridges cross the river in two miles. The old Roman city, no doubt, was by the road-side somewhere near here, and perhaps by Horse brook. Brewood may have been a Roman town, but it is too far out of the road for the convenience of travellers; and Penkridge is two miles and a half off, so that it can put in no claim. This town must have borrowed its name from the river, as that from the Roman city. Penkridge stands by the side of a large marsh made by the river: the church is built of good stone; a remarkable stone cross in the street. The healthiness of this country favours Mr. Baxter’s conjecture of the derivation of Pennocrucium.