THE construction of a new branch in Essex of the Great Eastern Railway, during the last two years, from Shenfield to Wickford and so on to Rayleigh, has opened to the archæologist a comparatively new area of country, for to many this interesting old town of Billericay – one of the most ancient in the county and its neighbourhood. In the Book of Chantries it is stated that it “ys a great towne and populous, and also a haven town; there ys in yt by estimacion about the numb of 600 houseling people or more. Yt is no parysshe.”
Forming part of Great Burghstead, or, as commonly spelt, Burstead, Billericay is situate about midway between Chelmsford and Tilbury— a straight line drawn from one to the other would pass as nearly as possible through it. It stands upon a long spur of hill running southwards towards the Thames, and consists mainly of one long street built upon the ridge of the hill, and until 1876 had a most picturesque appearance owing to the large number of ancient high-gabled houses, whose fronts were ornamented in a peculiar manner with the bottoms of presumably claret or other wine bottles arranged in various geometrical patterns. Now, alas! all are modernised, the gables taken down, and the glass-work plastered over. Of the church, or rather chantry chapel – an ugly, unmeaning, modern erection of no ecclesiological interest whatever, but which fortunately retains the original beautiful brick tower erected during the reign of Edward IV., and one of the finest specimens remaining in this county, so celebrated for its Edwardian brickwork- At the north end, where the spur of hill joins the main body, stands the Union House. A little beyond this building is a large wood called Norsey. At the south end, on the brow of the hill, are two windmills, one of which stands upon what is apparently an artificial mound of very early construction.
It is quite certain that the little town has borne its name for many centuries with but slight variation in the mode of spelling, for, in the year 1395, allusion is made in the Pipe Roll to one Thomas Ledere, traitor to the King, beheaded at Billerica.” The name similarly spelt occurs over and over again among the documents stored in the Public Record Office, entitled, Presentationes de malifactoribus qui surrexerunt contra Dominum Regem, 4 et 5 Ric. II. In 1563, I find among the accounts of the churchwardens of Chelmsford two entries of sums received from “Belyreca men for the hire of our garments,” that is, costumes for a miracle play. Among some seventeenth-century tradesmen’s tokens in my possession is one inscribed, “Abraham Thresher, in Billericay, Essex, his halfpenny, 1666,” with two crossed pipes.
The county of Essex, from its maritime situation on the shores of the German Ocean and the estuary of the Thames, possesses too many natural advantages to have been neglected by invaders so keen and enterprising as the Romans were; we are, therefore, not surprised to find that almost one of the first colonies founded by them was that at Colchester, while from the great number of interments and frequent discovery of tiles, etc., in and about Billericay, I am induced to think that it was not only a very early settlement, but that it was also a numerously populated one. Morant, in his History of Essex, says, “Hereabouts, unquestionably, was some Roman villa or little station, for at Bluntswalls (in Great Burstead) are earthworks, the remains of a ditch and rampart, containing about four acres, one part of which hath been inclosed round, and within the inclosure have been some mounts artificially raised, now chiefly levelled.” Of the remains thus described not a trace now remains, but the incorporation of the name of a former proprietor with the word “walls” (Blunt’s Walls) proves that the remains must have been remarkable at the period when the name was conferred on the manor. Robert de Blunt, who joined Simon de Montfort, was the first of the name who held this estate. Camden, in his Britannica, says, “Burghsted, by contraction Bursted, i.e., the place of a Burgh.
Morant tells us, “In November, 1724, a person digging for gravel in a field near Billerica, on a high hill, after he had sunk about three feet, can to a large bed of black earth or ashes, which endeavouring to clear away he found mixt with a great quantity of pieces of earthern vessels of different kinds and colours-some white, some red, and some of a dark brown. Neither he nor any who have since searched have been able to meet with anything entire, but the pieces appeared plainly to be fragments of urns, pateras, etc., In one part of the earth there was a place made like an oven of the hard dark clay, and the man believed it was large enough to have held six half-peck loaves. There is no clay within three miles of the place. There have been several Roman coins found here, and two of silver (one of Trajan, the other Hadrian).” The high hill alluded to in this account is probably that south of the town upon which the windmills stand. Morant is decidedly wrong in his statement of there being no clay within three miles of the town. There is very stiff clay within a radius of half a mile from the mill hill.
The next discovery occurred about eighty years since, when a large number of urns were dug up in Norsey Wood. These were preserved by the owner, the then Lord Petre, at Thorndon Hall, and probably were destroyed in the disastrous fire which consumed that mansion on March 22, 1881. The next find took place some twenty years later, when about 1,100 copper or bronze Roman coins were found in the side of a ditch by a labourer, on a farm called Tyled Hall, now known as Ramsden Hall, about half a mile from Billericay. I am told that these coins, with one exception, were sold in London by the discoverer within twenty-four hours of the find. The immediate neighbourhood of this ditch has proved rather rich in urns, amphora, and pateræ, which have been found in a more or less perfect condition; one vessel has been described to me as being ornamented with a human face or mask. Some of the urns contained burnt human bones, and were found in groups of three or four. A large number of urns similarly filled and arranged were found some years since by the late Mr. Wood from time to time in the mill fields, and from the quantity of fragments spread over a considerable extent of ground, as well as from traces of burnt earth and charcoal, this locality appears to have been the site of a burial-place attached to a Romano-British village or town occupying the position of the present town of Billericay.
Mr. Shaw, a former resident in Billericay, records the discovery among other relics, on the site of the same burial-place, of a small gold British coin (vide Proceedings of the Archeological Association), and coins of Trajan and Antoninus Pius, and that he excavated a pit 25 feet deep, from which he procured a large quantity of fragments of pottery. He also states that in widening the road near the Union House (the Chelmsford road) a number of urns were found. Major Spitty, J.P., of Billericay, has in his possession a large number of articles found near this spot. His collection consists of ossuary and other urns of various colours and forms, including one or two of Samian ware, two fine broken bronze specula ornamented with a decidedly Celtic pattern, a terra cotta lamp, and a number of black or dark blue beads, all found between 1863-66.
In 1865 a number of urns were found in Norsey Wood, at the end nearest Billericay. They were discovered, as usual, whilst digging for gravel, were fifteen in number, all of a brown colour, and lathe-turned, and were found mostly in groups of two and three, only one in each group containing bones, and these but little burnt. The groups were apparently placed without any order of arrangement; all but one were broken, for, on account of their nearness to the surface, the roots of the underwood had grown into and through them. One urn contained some pieces of metal, very much corroded, probably the remains of two fibulæ, another bones, ashes, and a bronze fibula. At a spot near these urns was a deposit of bones not contained in any vessel. Some corroded articles of iron were also found, one being very much like our bill-hook in form. of the men employed in digging gravel told me he had (now), about sixteen years ago, near this spot, come upon a ditch about 300 yards long, 8 feet deep, and wide enough to walk in comfortably. At the end was a circular place about 15 feet in diameter, and a little deeper than the ditch. Of this excavation no trace now remains. It will be remembered that Stow tells us the insurgents of Essex, under Walter Tighlere, in the fifth year of Richard II., gathering a new multitude together at Byllerica, fortified themselves with ditches and carriages.” It is therefore possible that this ditch may have been of that period. In the latter part of 1865, further discoveries were made in Norsey Wood by the Rev. E. L. Cutts, in opening tumuli. The first one opened was on the south-east side of the wood, overlooking the valley of the Thames ; it was circular in form, about 12 feet across and 6 feet high. In the centre of it was found a British urn of rude workmanship and coarse brown material. It was about 18 inches high, and contained burnt bones and ashes. A few inches from this was found another of similar size, filled in the same way; both were placed upside down. At a distance of feet were the remains of a third placed on a rather lower level, and of a redder colour. Near these urns was a bronze coin, so corroded as to be undecipherable. The second tumulus opened was on the west side of the wood, close to the Ramsden Road: nothing was found till nearly the centre was reached, when within a circle of about 2 yards diameter were found no less than seven urns, and numerous fragments. During my residence in Billericay, between the years 1874 and 1883, I obtained nearly two barrowloads of fragments of various colours; though principally dark brown, and of a coarse material, some were ornamented by a course of indentations, evidently made by a thumbnail. In 1881 a beautiful little lathe-turned urn, of a dirty cream colour, was dug out by one of the labourers in a perfect condition, but being clumsily handled, was dropped while en route to me, and broken into fragments, some of which were lost. In the autumn of 1882 I found, at a depth of 9 inches, in the gravel of Norsey Wood, a coarse brown urn inverted upon a perfect Samian patera, bearing the maker’s name, ECVBARIS. I removed this in safety, and found it to contain a quantity of burnt bones, including some vertebræ at once identified by the two local medical practitioners as having formed part of the frame of a female not more than twenty years of age. In it was also a bronze fibula, and a number of iron nails, precisely similar to those now worn in labourer’s boots. This interment, like all others that came under my notice, was in a hole dug into the gravel, and surrounded by burnt earth, charred stones, and charcoal. Other tumuli still remain unopened. Another spot abounding with similar interments is a field between the mill hill and the Union House, and adjoining the old burial-ground belonging to the Nonconformists. Among the vases here found was one of very large size, and although lathe-turned, composed of an extremely coarse material, and utterly devoid of ornament, it is stated to have contained a large quantity of half-burnt bones. Another is described as being smaller in size, but very elegant in shape, and to have been ornamented with circular bands of a light yellow colour. A third was very shallow, with a deep overhanging lip serrated upon its lower edge.
In the adjoining burial-ground is a vault, built many years since by a farmer named Mabbs, who, at the time of its construction, placed therein three large stone coffins. Where these coffins came from, my informants are utterly ignorant; but one of them, Mr. Curtis, a builder and undertaker, tells me he has several times been in the vault, and has seen the coffins, that “they are very large, and contain the wooden coffins of three members of the Mabbs family.” Not having seen them myself, I can of course offer no opinion as to their age; and the vault being full there is little probability of its being re-opened. Although I have made the most diligent inquiry, I have failed to find any record or tradition of the discovery of stone coffins in Billericay, or its very immediate neighbourhood; but the well-known fact that interment of the body was contemporaneous with cremation among the Romans, renders it not altogether unreasonable to suppose them to belong to that period. On the other hand, it will be remembered that Leland says, “The Abbey of Stratford, first set among the low marshes, was after with sore fludes defayced, and removed to a celle or graunge longynge to it, called Burgestede in Essex, a mile or more from Billerica : the monks remained at Burgestede tyll entrete was made of Richard Ist., who took the ground and abbey at Stratford into his protection and re-edifienge it, brought the foresayde monks againe to Stratford.” Now as Mr. Mabbs, I have reason to believe, once occupied the Grange Farm, about half a mile or so from this burial-ground, it is of course possible that he found the coffins there, and that they may have contained the bodies of some of the ecclesiastics attached to the abbey.
About fifteen years since, a man engaged in draining a field found at a depth of 2 feet a very fine flint celt, 6 inches long, with a cutting edge 21 inches wide; and within a quarter of a mile from this spot there was found in January, 1881, a bronze celt of the loop class; with it were fragments of its ashen handle. It is now in the possession of Edgar Jones, Esq., J.P., of Little Burstead. Among the numerous Roman coins found in or near Billericay, which have come under my observation, I have noticed those of Hadrian, Germanicus, Constantine, Licinius, Nero and Trajan, and of the Empresses Faustina and Helena.
In July, 1881, some men were employed in digging a hole for the reception of a gasholder on the premises of Mr. Salter, near the side of the road from Tilbury to Chelmsford, and, at a depth of 3 feet, came upon a mass of broken pottery. On receiving information of the discovery I hastened to the spot, and found a platform, or pavement, composed of mortar, principally consisting of powdered brick, 6 feet square and 3 inches thick. Upon this had been placed a number of cinerary and other urns; unfortunately all were broken, but I secured a large quantity of fragments, among them some of Samian ware, one of which bears the name DIICMUS, which name also appears on a patera found at West Tilbury some years since.
Although the evidences of British and Roman occupation hitherto found in Billericay consist, with the exception of a few beads, fibula and specula, of coins and interments, there are, I think, sufficient of the latter to justify my opinion that it must have been a place of some little importance. What became of the dwellings of those whose ashes lay all round the town, I know not. No foundations have been discovered, no fragments of tesselated pavements to mark the abodes of the great ones of a station which very probably rose upon a spot near to, but not actually upon, the site of a British town.
It was a spot well suited for a military post, standing upon a height which in the county of Essex is not to be despised; its very position may have induced a feeling of security similar to that which led to the overthrow of Camulodunum. It may be that after the destruction of that unfortunate colony, the victorious army of Boadicea, in its triumphant march, attacked the station here, and destroyed town and stronghold, their blackened ruins serving to teach the Roman that it was necessary to fence his cities against even those he regarded as his slaves. The Roman undoubtedly returned, but not exactly to the old spot, for a sort of superstitious dread may have attached itself to the scene of so much slaughter and misery. Therefore, possibly he then, on the site now known as Blunt’s Walls, threw up a stronger and more important fortress; but upon that also silence has settled down, the silence of mystery, the silence of the past, the silence of death.