* It is a pleasant duty to place on record my gratitude to the many farmers in the March area who allowed us to excavate and survey their land, often at considerable inconvenience: these include the late Alderman Burton of Doddington, Mr Martin and Mr Vawser of March, Mr Cross and Mr Smith of Stonea, Mr Hudson of Wimblington and the CWS Estate, Coldham. The work was largely carried out by a team from March Grammar School (now the Neale-Wade School) and the work of direction was shared with my brother, Christopher Potter, who has contributed greatly to this and other papers. We were fortunate to have the advice and encouragement of Peter Salway, Brian Hartley, Joan Liversidge, Mary Cra'ster, and Sir Harry Godwin, all of whom did much to aid our amateur investigations. I also owe a great debt to the colleagues who have contributed to the preparation of this paper, amongst them Philip Compton, who drew FIGS. 6–10, Ralph Jackson, Ian Longworth, Mark Hassall, Stuart Needham, Rob Perrin, Iris Phillips, Francis Pryor, Valery Rigby, David Shotter and Gillian Wilson. We were always greatly helped by Jack Ward of March and by the late W. L. Hanchant who was Curator of Wisbech Museum and a tireless scholar of local history; while to the present Curator of Wisbech Museum, Rosalinda Hardiman, special thanks are due for providing both information and objects for study and for sorting out the records. I am also especially indebted to the Fenland Field Officer, David Hall, who has been more than generous in making available information and maps of the results of his outstanding work of ground-survey; and I would like to pay special tribute to Catherine Johns who, apart from writing a significant proportion of this paper, has aided its preparation in every possible way. My thanks are also due to the British Museum for providing the facilities to produce this paper and to John Wilkes for expert editorial guidance. Finally, I would like to acknowledge the special debt to my father, formerly Headmaster of March Grammar School, and to my mother, who suffered but still encouraged the archaeological work described in this paper.

¹ Churchill in C. W. Phillips (ed.), The Fenland in Roman Times, RGS Research Memoir (1970), 134 f., referred to below as Phillips 1970; Sir Harry Godwin, Fenland: its ancient past and uncertain future (C.U.P., 1978), 86 f.

² The findspot is not certain; cf. Piggott, S., Procs. Prehistoric Soc. xvi (1950), 4–5.Google Scholar

³ Pryor, F. in Burgess, C. and Miket, R. (eds.), Settlement and Economy in the third and second millennia B.C., British Archaeological Reports 33 (1976), 41 f.Google Scholar

⁴ For a recent discussion of Iron Age pottery styles in this region and publication of a comparable group from Vicarage Farm at Fengate, cf. F. M. Pryor, Excavation at Fengate, Peterborough, England: the first report, Royal Ontario Museum (1974), 35 f.

⁵ For an Iron Age vessel and a La Tène iii brooch from Coldham, cf. the catalogue of British Museum objects, infra, p. 95.

⁶ Drainage can be excluded since, with the possible exception of the Rodham Farm Canal, no artificial cuts can be dated to this period. For Grandford, cf. T. W. and C. F. Potter, Procs. Cambs. Antiq. Soc. (PCAS below), in press; B.M. Occ. Pap. (1981), in press.

⁷ For the first report, cf. PCAS lxviii (1978), 21–46.Google Scholar

⁸ ibid, in press; B.M. Occ. Pap. (1981), forthcoming.

⁹ Salway in Phillips 1970, 8–9.

¹⁰ cf. Longthorpe II (Britannia v (1974), 38–9)Google Scholar; and Frere, S. S., Britannia (Cardinal, 1974), 107.Google Scholar Scole should probably be excluded from the list of possible post-Boudiccan forts in East Anglia (East Anglian Archaeology v (1977), 224).Google Scholar cf. also Webster, G., Boudicca (Batsford, 1978), 105 f.Google Scholar

¹¹ Phillips 1970, 189 (River Ouse at St. Ives); cf. also ibid., 272 for a possible depot at Eye, and for late third-century kilns close to the Car Dyke in Lincolnshire, B. B. Simmons, Roman Tile Kilns at Heckington, Lines., Car Dyke Publication 3 (Spalding, 1977).

¹² As at Verulamium (Frere, S. S., Verulamium Excavations I, Soc. Antiquaries Res. Report xxviii (1972), 160 f.)Google Scholar, Colchester (Crummy, P., Britannia viii (1977), 79)Google Scholar or Brampton (East Anglian Archaeology v (1977), 86).Google Scholar

¹³ The implication that is sometimes made (e.g. VCH Cambs. vii (1978), 56)Google Scholar that the Fens were an area where coins were little used is clearly mistaken; cf. the evidence presented by Shotter, infra, p. 120.

¹⁴ Were it not for the absence of defences, Grandford could in many ways be compared with some of the more modest settlements discussed in Rodwell, W. and Rowley, T. (eds.), Small Towns of Britain, BAR 15 (1977).Google Scholar

¹⁵ Considered further in the final section.

¹⁶ Smith, Charles Roach, Collectanea Anliqua iv (1857), 80.Google Scholar

¹⁷ Hull, M. R., The Roman Potters' Kilns of Colchester, Society of Antiquaries Research Report xxi (1963), 91.Google Scholar

¹⁸ Webster, Graham, Durobrivae vii (1979), 6.Google Scholar

¹⁹ Registration number 1866.12–3.57. H. B. Walters, Catalogue of Roman Pottery … in the British Museum (1908), M.2495.

²⁰ 1857.8–6.1 and Walters M.2479. Illustrated in J. W. Brailsford, Guide to the Antiquities of Roman Britain (1951 and 1964), pl. iv, 13.

²¹ cf. another British Museum sherd, 1856.7–1.239, Walters M.2511 from London.

²² Note 20, above.

²³ Walters M.2485.

²⁴ Note 18, above.

²⁵ Hull, op. cit. (note 17), fig. 53, 1.

²⁶ In particular, we should like to thank Mr R. Perrin for his comments.

²⁷ Webster, op. cit. (note 18).

²⁸ Roach Smith, op. cit. (note 16).

²⁹ British Museum 1871.7–14.18, Walters M.2483.

³⁰ Hull, op. cit. (note 17), fig. 53, 13 and p. 93.

³¹ British Museum reference: 1870.12–8.1–74.

³² For Flaggrass and Stonea, cf. infra.

³³ PCAS lviii (1965), 12–37Google Scholar; the dates quoted here correct those in the published report on the excavation.

³⁴ PCAS xliii (1949), 14.Google Scholar

³⁵ Main references: Phillips 1970, 319–20; Rudsdale, E. J. and Warby, W. in PCAS xliii (1949), 14Google Scholar; PCAS lvi–lvii (1964), 125Google Scholar; Hall, D., PCAS lxviii (1978), 21–46.Google Scholar

³⁶ Fox, C., Archaeology of the Cambridge Region (Cambridge, 1923), 263.Google Scholar There are cruciform brooches, apparently from Wisbech, in Wisbech Museum.

³⁷ For comments on the Iron Age, Saxon and Medieval objects respectively, we should like to thank our colleagues Valery Rigby, Leslie Webster and John Cherry.

³⁸ Still not adequately published (British Museum, 1844.2.–23.1–9); cf. Peal, C. A. in PCAS lix (1967), 19 f.Google Scholar; Liversidge, J., PCAS lii (1959), 9.Google Scholar

³⁹ Emilie Riha, Die römischen Fibeln aus Augst und Kaiseraugst (Augst, 1979).

⁴⁰ We are indebted to Ralph Jackson for his help in identifying the ironwork.

⁴¹ cf. Phillips 1970, 218 f.; T. W. Potter, PCAS lxvi (1975–1976), 23–54. For a summary of recent excavations see below under ‘Roman Britain in 1980’.

⁴² Stonea Camp : Phillips 1970,4 and 218; J. Dyer in P. J. Fowler (ed.), Archaeology and the Landscape (1972), 226–7. The pottery is published in PCAS lviii (1965), 29–31.Google Scholar

⁴³ Allen, D. F., Britannia i (1970), 18Google Scholar; cf. also J. Evans, The Coins of the Ancient Britons (1890), 586–7; and Num. Chron. (1839), 89, for a hoard from March.

⁴⁴ Now in Peterborough Museum; identification by Miss C. M. Johns.

⁴⁵ Frere, S. S., Britannia (Cardinal, 1974), 93.Google Scholar

⁴⁶ Now in the Wisbech Museum; they average 1 × 1 × 0.75 in.; cf. Phillips 1970, 218.

⁴⁷ Phillips 1970, sites 4494, 4593W (pp. 218–19).

⁴⁸ Peckover MS; cf. PCAS xliii (1949), 16.Google Scholar

⁴⁹ Pitts, L. F., Roman bronze figurines of the Catuvellauni and Trinovantes, BAR 60 (1979), 9.Google Scholar It is interesting to note that the only religious dedications known from the Nene Valley are to Minerva and Hercules (Arch. Journ. cxxxi (1974)), 167).Google Scholar

⁵⁰ No temple has ever been securely identified in the Fens, although a n altar is reported from Whaplode (Phillips 1970, 302) and there is a ‘double-box’ cropmark at Elm (Phillips 1970, 322). For a sanctuary complex on the Fen-edge at Hockwold, cf. Phillips 1970, 248–9. For a general discussion of the evidence, cf. VCH Cambs. vii (1978), 84 f., and 80–2.Google Scholar

⁵¹ PCAS lxvi (1975–1976), 37 f.Google Scholar

⁵² Jocelyn Toynbee in Joanna Bird, Hugh Chapman and John Clark (eds.), Collectanea Londiniensia: studies presented to Ralph Merrifield (1978), 129.

⁵³ Painter, K. S., The Water Newton Early Christian Silver (British Museum Publications, 1977).Google Scholar

⁵⁴ Salomson, J. W., Oudheidkundige Mededelingen xliii (1962), pl. xiii, 1 and p. 59.Google Scholar

⁵⁵ Toynbee, op. cit. (note 52), no. 22, p. 138: this is a plaque to Minerva from Maiden Castle. It is illustrated in Green, Miranda, A Corpus of Religious Material from the Civilian Areas of Roman Britain, BAR 24 (1976), pl. viii, h. Small, plain bronze plaques occur at a number of sites.Google Scholar

⁵⁶ Dedicated to Mars Alator : H. B. Walters, Catalogue of the Silver Plate in the British Museum (1921), no. 231, p. 60; also Toynbee, op. cit. (note 52), no. 27.

⁵⁷ Painter, op. cit. (note 53), nos. 10, 14, 18.

⁶⁸ ibid., no. 11.

⁵⁹ Fleischer, R., Die römischen Bronzen aus Österreich (Mainz, 1967), no. 26, p. 43 and Taf. 23.Google Scholar

⁶⁰ Toynbee, Jocelyn, Art in Britain under the Romans (Oxford, 1964), pl. xvii, c and d, and p. 81.Google Scholar

⁶¹ Silchester: Green, op. cit. (note 55), pl. viii, c and p. 23. Woodeaton; Kirk, Joan, Oxoniensia xiv (1949), pl. iv, e, f and p. 40Google Scholar. Also Green, op. cit. (note 55), pl. viii, b and Toynbee, op. cit. (note 60), 81. Ospringe: Whiting, W., Arch. Cant, xxxvi (1923), 65.Google Scholar We are indebted to Dr John Casey for this reference.

⁶² Toynbee, op. cit. (note 60), pl. xvii, a b and p. 81. Brailsford 1964 (note 20), pl. xxiv and p. 60.

⁶³ Fleischer, op. cit. (note 59), no. 35, p. 48.

⁶⁴ Constock, Mary and Vermeule, C., Greek, Etruscan and Roman Bronzes in the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston (1971), no. 99.Google Scholar

⁶⁵ Phillips 1970, 218, site 4199S; this account supersedes the summary given there.

⁶⁶ Now in Wisbech Museum. The earliest reference to the place-name cited by Reaney (Placenames of Cambridgeshire and the Isle of Ely (1943), 256) is to 1251 and it was common land in 1589.

⁶⁷ Procs. Prehist. Soc. East Anglia vii (1933), 258 ff.Google Scholar

⁶⁸ In Phillips 1970, 68–9.

⁶⁹ cf. especially Brisay, K. de, Antiq. Journ. lviii (1978), 31–60.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

⁷⁰ Phillips 1970, 69.

⁷¹ Brisay, K. de (ed.), Salt (Colchester, 1975).Google Scholar

⁷² Contra Hallam in Phillips 1970, 70 and B. B. Simmons in South Lincolnshire Archaeology i (1977), g; cf. Bestwick in de Brisay, op. cit. (note 71), 70. A. L. F. Rivet and C. Smith (The Placenames of Roman Britain (1979). 120 and 451) suggest Droitwich, Worcestershire, to have been Ptolemy's Salinae, and Middlewich to have been the Salinis referred to in the Ravenna Cosmography.

⁷³ In Phillips 1970, 70; a mid second-century termination is suggested.

⁷⁴ By no means all of the collection has been relocated. The bulk is in Wisbech Museum, and a representative group (including the illustrated pieces) has been placed in the British Museum.

⁷⁵ Swinnerton, H. H., Antiq. Journ. xii (1932), 239–53CrossRefGoogle Scholar; B. B. Simmons in de Brisay, op. cit. (note 71), 33–6.

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⁸¹ I. D Margary, Roman Roads in Britain (1973), 230–2.

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⁸³ Phillips 1970, site 4398, 216–8 and 221–2.

⁸⁴ Fowler, G., PCAS xliii (1949), 11.Google Scholar

⁸⁵ JRS li (1961), 182Google Scholar; Phillips 1970, 328–9.

⁸⁶ Antiq. Journ. xviii (1938), 76–7Google Scholar. At Fengate, Francis Pryor has found late first-early second century pottery in the later of two surfaces. Cf. also Wild, J. P., Arch. Journ. cxxxi (1974), 143.Google Scholar

⁸⁷ Fowler, G., PCAS xliii (1949), 10Google Scholar; J. Bromwich in Phillips 1970, 120 f.

⁸⁸ For further comment on flooding, cf. the final section of this paper.

⁸⁹ PCAS xliii (1949), 11.Google Scholar

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⁹¹ Sir Harry Godwin, op. cit. (note 1), 86.

⁹² Summarised in the site gazetteer in Phillips 1970.

⁹³ Key to abbreviated references: Babington, C. C., Ancient Cambridgeshire (Cambridge, 1883)Google Scholar; Fox, C., The Archaeology of the Cambridge Region (Cambridge, 1923)Google Scholar; PCAS=Proceedings of the Cambridge Antiquarian Society; NC= Numismatic Chronicle; VCH= Victoria County History.

⁹⁴ Robertson, A. S. in Casey, P. J. and Reece, R. (eds.), Coins and the Archaeologist, BAR 4 (1974), 29.Google Scholar

⁹⁵ Shiel, N., The Episode of Carausius and Allectus, BAR 40 (1977), 83Google Scholar; Mattingly, H. B., ‘The Lightwood Hoard and the Coinage of Barbarous Radiates’, North Staffs, Journ. Field Studies iii (1963), 26.Google Scholar

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⁹⁹ T. W. Potter, ‘Excavations at Grandford’, PCAS forthcoming; B.M. Occ. Pap. (1981), forthcoming.

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¹⁰¹ T. W. Potter, op. cit. (note 99).

¹⁰² In Phillips 1970, 167.

¹⁰³ Simmons, B. B. (South Lines. Arch, i (1977), 8)Google Scholar has emphasised that none of the pottery from recent field survey on the silts pre-dates the Hadrianic period; a similar conclusion emerges from David Hall's sample from fieldwork in Cambridgeshire. On the other hand, surface finds are much less prolific than they were 20 years ago and known early sites seem to be producing small and, often, unrepresentative groups.

¹⁰⁴ Salway in Phillips 1970, 9 f., 165.

¹⁰⁵ Clark, J. G. D., Antiq. Journ. xxix (1947), 145–63Google Scholar; for the Hadrianic date, B. R. Hartley in Phillips 1970, 126. The function of the canal as a catchment system, draining overflow from the uplands is discussed by Pryor, A., Durobrivae vi (1978), 24–5Google Scholar, and by Simmons, B. B., The Lincolnshire Car Dyke (Boston, 1975).Google Scholar

¹⁰⁶ PCAS lxvi (1975–1976), 37 f.Google Scholar

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¹⁰⁸ cf. Hallam, S. J. in Antiq. Journ. xliv (1964), 19–32CrossRefGoogle Scholar; and in Phillips 1970, 51 f.

¹⁰⁹ Phillips 1970, 216 (site 4185).

¹¹⁰ Unpublished coins include issues of Antoninus Pius (2), Marcus Aurelius, Commodus, Severus Alexander and Postumus. For the site, JRS xiv (1924), 225Google Scholar; Phillips 1970, 216 (site 4389N).

¹¹¹ e.g. Whaplode Drove (Phillips 1970, 302) was evidently a large centre with ‘Romanized’ buildings.

¹¹² C. Peal, A., PCAS lx (1967), 19–37Google Scholar provides a general account. Phillips 1970 gives a full list of findspots. cf. also Manning, W. H., Britannia iii (1972), 248.Google Scholar

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¹¹⁵ S. Stalleybrass, B.M. Occ. Pap. (1981), in press. These notes do not take account of King's, A. important paper ‘A comparative survey of bone assemblages from Roman sites in Britain’, Bull. Inst. Arch. London xv (1978), 207–32.Google Scholar

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¹²⁶ In H. P. R. Finberg (ed.), The Agrarian History of England and Wales (1972), 216 f.

¹²⁷ Sources: Phillips 1970, Wisbech Museum.

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¹²⁹ Pryor, A., Durobrivae vi (1978), 24–5Google Scholar; B. B. Simmons, The Lincolnshire Car Dyke (1975).

¹³⁰ I. D. Margary, Roman Roads in Britain (1973), 230–2.

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