ANCIENT BRITISH REMAINS AT OVER DARWEN.

By Charles Hardwick,

Author of "The History of Preston and its Environs."

(READ 2ND NOVEMBER, 1865.)

ON the receipt of information, in November, 1864, that sepulchral and other remains, supposed to indicate Roman occupation in the neighbourhood of Darwen, had been discovered, I visited the locality, and inspected the site and the archæological objects disinterred. W. Shorrock Ashton Esq., the owner of the estate, most courteously permitted the fullest examination of the remains, and communicated all necessary information.

The tumulus in which they were found is situated to the right of the highway leading from Darwen to Bolton, in the park land attached to Whitehall, and contiguous to that of Low Hill House, the seat of Ellis Shorrock Esq. The property formerly belonged to the Trafford family, and tradition further asserts the ancient proprietorship of the elder Earls of Derby. About a mile and a half distant, on the hills to the west, is a place named the "Lion's Den," and a residence, a little nearer, called the "Lord's Hall." The Roman road which passes from Manchester, by Cockey Moor, to Ribchester traverses the township about a mile to the east of the site of the discovery.

The tumulus appears not to have been altogether artificial, as the burial urns were found within a foot or two of the surface, and were embedded in the original or unmoved earth. Still, from its form, and the slightly scarped appearance of its

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sides, it is probable that a favourably situated natural hillock has been converted into a barrow" by artificial means. It is of a circular form, about thirty yards in diameter, ten or twelve feet high on the east side and between two and three on the west. There was, as is usual in burial tumuli, a slight hollow on the crown of the mound. It stands upon what may be termed the "naze" or promontory of an undulating plateau, overlooking the Darwen valley eastward, but it is sheltered by the high hills which separate that stream from its tributary, the Roddlesworth, on the west.

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About fifty or sixty years ago the mound was planted with a circle of trees. These had recently been felled, with a view to the appropriation of the site for a villa residence for Mrs. Ashton. In the course of the necessary excavations for this purpose the objects of archæological interest were discovered. Some remains of a gravelled road were likewise traced, but this is believed to be, relatively, of a much more modern date. At the time of my visit Mr. Ashton had obtained nine distinct cremated interments. He has since found another. eight instances the ashes and fragments of burnt bones were enclosed in urns of rude pottery. In one instance, the debris of the funeral pyre appeared to have been consigned to the earth without the protection of an urn or coffin of any kind. Eight of these interments were found within a space of about twenty-one feet by fourteen. One urn was distant from this group about forty feet. The whole, with one exception, were placed in the earth with the orifice or aperture upwards. These were covered with rude slabs, two of which were secured in good condition; others were broken by the workmen's picks. One urn, without a slab, had been deposited in an inverted position. It is highly probable there may be some significance in this circumstance. It is not a very uncom mon one in connection with ancient British interments. barrow of this class, opened in 1825 in Dorsetshire, by

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Mr. W. Augustus Miles, presented a similar feature. The urns at Darwen were generally found under small heaps of stones, which, it would appear, had either been placed there for the protection of the interments, or to mark the locality. Several of the urns were broken into fragments, but two were in a very fair state of preservation. A small earthenware vessel, between two and three inches in diameter, was found amongst the bones in one of the urns. It is not very unlike a lamp in form, but it is much ruder, both in design and manufacture, than those commonly found in connection with Roman interments. Another somewhat similar, but larger vessel, resembles very much the rudely fashioned crust of an ordinary pork pie. This, however, though enclosed in a larger urn, was filled with ashes and fragments of bones. The whole of the pottery is of a very primitive character, and resembles to some extent both that usually attributed to the early Pagan Anglo-Saxons and that of the British population resident in England both before and after the Roman conquest. Their forms have not the full round contour of urns notoriously Roman. One, especially, has the somewhat angular form of the Anglo-Saxon urn figured by Mr. Thomas Wright, at page 422 of his Celt, Roman and Saxon, but the neck is not nearly so narrow. The ornamentation has been chiefly effected with the point of a stick, while the clay, which has been very coarsely kneaded, was in a soft state. The "cross-hatching" kind of lines, and the series of dots, common to ancient British ware, predominate. But, as the former is sometimes found on what are described as rude Roman or RomanoBritish urns, and the latter on Anglo-Saxon pottery, there is a difficulty in deciding from these evidences to what period the remains belong. No coins had been found, though some pieces of bronze possibly might have been coins, but they were far too much corroded to furnish any evidence of the fact. In one of the urns, however, a spear-head was deposited.