Chapter 4

PREHISTORY

A visitor to the Hill in 1885 was Mrs Lilian Grisewood who had just (16th April) married the Revd Arthur Grisewood, Rector of Daylesford (and was to become the mother of Freddie Grisewood, the well-known writer, singer and pioneer in broadcasting). Mrs Grisewood discovered some Roman coins dating from Claudius (A.D. 41 - 54) to Constantine (A.D. 306 - 337). She sent these to the Ashmolean Museum for identification. Many years later, in 1908, she discovered bronze ornaments, one or two glass fragments, and some more coins (one of Allectus c.296 A. D. - a usurper who claimed to be Emperor of Britain) on a site that she was able to identify with some precision in Phillips' Field, south-west of what would later become the Warden's House. In the same area, Mr George Goodway found a coin of Carausius dating from about 285, who also styled himself 'Emperor of Britain`. The site was therefore recorded on the Ordnance Survey map.

Roman coins: Quinarius Allectus (left) & Antoninianus Carausius (right) dating from
the the era of those found on the site of KHS. Photos courtesy of CNG Coins

But not only did she find coins: in 1929, when some excavations were taking place on the Hill, Mrs Grisewood found some bronze brooches, some of which were Etruscan, and of considerable antiquity. There were extensive excavations in 1929, particularly in connection with the Pump House, the sewage plant and the nearby farm cottages.

		In 1963 a Romano-Egyptian bronze Horus (Horus Imperator) emerged, followed by an Egyptian shawabti figure from an unrecorded Egyptian tomb, archaeologists began to ask questions. The Horus was found by the Warden's son, Ian Cooper, in the hedgerow that marks the boundary between the parishes of Kingham and Daylesford, and the shawabti was found by Stephen Belcher near the farm cottages in the neighbourhood of Stratford House. The Founder had been on the Grand Tour, had spent a year in Egypt in 1901-2, and had acquired a collection which he always intended to house in a proper museum on the Hill. Archaeologists concluded, not unreasonably, that the Founder's collection had been rifled by small boys who then scattered their finds on various locations on the Hill, and they decided to delete all prehistoric discoveries on the Hill; the site has now been erased from all official archaeological records. This decision is too drastic, and hints at the mortification of the learned archaeologist (Dr J. R. Harris) who had been unwittingly hoaxed into writing a monograph on the 'Horus`.
Bronze statue of Horus in the Louvre, Paris. These photographs are for illustration purposes only.				A faience shawabti of Seti I. Photo attribution: Keith Schengili-Roberts

Mrs Grisewood's discoveries in 1885 took place before any boy had arrived on the Hill, and long before the Founder had spent his time in Egypt. There had been a genuine Romano-British settlement centred on Phillips Field and spilling over into Cook's Field. But the antique brooches, the Romano-Egyptian Horus, and the shawabti must, regrettably, have been filched from the Founder's Museum and then discarded as being too hot to hold.

In 1893, Edward Lockwood in his whimsical and anecdotal book 'The Early Days of Marlborough College`, page 57, refers to another discovery on Kingham Hill that must have been made during the preceding decade:

During the deep ploughing lately going on at Kingham Hill, a large skeleton was unearthed, which, judging from the rusty weapons lying near, savants pronounced to be that of a Roman soldier.

The footnote on the same page refers to Mr George Phillips in such a way as to imply that the discovery was not made on his land. It is therefore probable that the land in question was part of Kingham Field Farm, where 'deep ploughing` may well have been undertaken when the farm was first acquired by the Founder. The 'savants` must have been Colonel Barrow and Dr William Warde Fowler whose profound knowledge of the classics (but not of archaeology) may have encouraged him to make the identification. It may be that the wish fathered the thought, but Warde Fowler's expertise in such matters should not be dismissed too easily.

It was a mistake to delete the prehistoric record of Kingham Hill. There is overwhelming evidence that in the area of Phillips' Field there had been occupation from at least the first century B. C. until the late fourth century A.D. In the early spring of 1972, excellent conditions for archaeological field walking resulted in the collection of prehistoric pottery fragments in considerable quantities. In one afternoon's foray alone, boys from the Lower 3 rd Form collected 630 potsherds from this site, of which Simon Bland personally found 350. This pottery was kindly identified by Mr David Brown, Assistant Keeper in the Department of Antiquities of the Ashmolean Museum, who came to the Hill for an afternoon to examine the collection, to meet the History Club and Mr Ernest Lainchbury, and to walk Phillips' Field with us. The earliest sherds belong to Iron Age 'B` period and are probably contemporary with the Chastleton Hillfort, dating from the 3 rd - 2 nd centuries B.C. A significant proportion of the remaining potsherds belonged to the period immediately preceding the Roman occupation - the first century B. C. But the vast majority of the pottery found in Phillips' Field belongs to the Roman period. There is no evidence whatever for a Roman 'Villa` on Kingham Hill, but there does seem to have been a small community of Romano-British farmers surviving from the Celtic Dobunni tribe which inhabited the Cotswolds, integrating only slowly with the civilisation of the Roman invaders. Most of the pottery is of a rough black colour, or slightly finer grey colour, and is most likely local in manufacture. There is also a considerable quantity of pink-coloured pottery more usually associated with other Oxfordshire sites. But there are also plenty of examples of 'Samian` pottery, which indicates that, for at least part of the time, the early inhabitants of Kingham Hill could afford an imported luxury.

Examples of Roman Samian ware (Terra Sigillata)
pottery from Constance, Germany.

Thomas Hamilton discovered a small fragment of a pot decorated with a scene of a hare being chased by hounds. Several fragments of mortars were found, including one which was probably manufactured at Verulamium (St Albans). John Mann found a small fragment of decorated Castor Ware from the Nene Valley. In 1968, Michael Clutson found a lead spindle-whorl. Also in 1972 a further five Roman coins were found in Phillips Field by Peter Butler, Thomas Hamilton, Stuart Goodier, Christopher Richards and Andrew Goddard. These included a coin of Gratianus (367-383 - 'Securitas Reipublice`), Valens (364-378 - 'Gloria Romanorum`) both minted at Lugdunum (Lyons). Andrew 'Titch` Goddard's coin, which is only one centimetre in diameter, is a barbarous copy of a radiate Antonianus of the late third century.

The Founder intended to establish a Museum on the Hill, and a special room was provided when the main buildings were erected in 1891. On 10 th April 1905, the adult baptism took place at Daylesford church of Walter Metcalfe, described as 'Attendant in Museum`, and noted as being 'of Kingham Hill`.

The Early Years main page | Previous chapter | Next chapter