THE ESSEX ARCHAEOLOGICAL SOCIETY The Essex Archaeological Society was founded in 1852 Its objects are: (I) To promote the study of the archaeology and history of the County of Essex. {2) To collect and publish the results of such studies in annual issues of Transactions and other publications. ( 3) To make researches, undertake excavations and field surveys, and assist in the preservation and recording of ancient monuments, earthworks, historic buildings, documents, and objects of archaeological interest and importance. (4) To provide library facilities for members and approved students. Publications The articles in its Transactions range over the whole field of local history. Back numbers and offprints are available; list and prices on application to the Librarian. Libraries requiring complete runs can often be assisted . .Members receive a quarterly Newsletter covering all aspects of the Society's activities, news of current excavations and fieldwork, and items of topical interest. The Library The library is housed at the Hollytrees, High Street, Colchester, and is extensive. It aims to include all books on local history, and has many runs of publications by kindred Societies. Full details of hours, etc., can be obtained from the Hon. Librarian. Membership Application should be made to the Hon. Membership Secretary for current rates. Articles for Publication are welcome and should be set out to conform with the Notes for Contributors, of which \' offprints are available. They should be sent to the Hon. Editor. A list of officers, with addresses, will be found on the inside back cover. Cover by Barbara Wells, L.S.I.A. Member Societies in Essex A.W.R.E. (Foulness) Archaeological Society; Billericay Archaeological and Historical Society; Brain Valley Archaeological Society; Castle Point Archaeological Group; Clavering and Langley Local History Group; Essex Society for Family History; The Friends of Historic Essex; Great Bardfield Historical Society; Great Chesterford Archaeological Group; Ingatestone and Fryeming Historical and Archaeological Society; Maldon Archaeological Group; Saffron Walden Antiquarian Society; Saffron Walden Museum Society; Southend-on-Sea and District Historical Society; Waltham Abbey Historical Society; West Essex Archaeological Group; Woodford and District Historical Society. Chigwell School; St. Helena School, Colchester; Suntrap Field Study Centre, Loughton. ESSEX ARCHAEOLOGY AND HISTORY ESSEX ARCHAEOLOGY AND HISTORY THE TRANSACTIONS OF / THE ESSEX ARCHAEOLOGICAL SOCIETY Dedicated to the memory of MARK REGINALD HULL 1897-1976 VOLUME 14 (Third Series) 1982 Published by the Society at the Museum in the Castle 1983 Typeset by Keyset Composition Printed by Vineyard Press Ltd. TRANSACTIONS OF THE ESSEX ARCHAEOLOGICALSOCIE'IY VOLUME 14, 1982 CONTENTS Page Mark Reginald Hull CHRISTOPHER HAWKES Colchester Before the Romans or Who Were Our Belgae? . 3 WARWICK RODWELL The Production and Distribution ofPottery and Tiles in the Territory ofthe Trinovantes . 15 PHILIP CRUMMY, JENNIFER HILLAM and CARL CROSSAN Mersea Island: the Anglo-Saxon Causeway . 77 NJNACRUMMY Mersea Island: the 11th Century Boundaries 87 R.H.BRITNELL The Oath Book of Colchester and the Borough Constitution, 1372-1404 . 94 ANDREW PHILLIPS Early Colchester Foundries . 102 DEBORAH PRIDDY (Ed.) Work of the Essex County Council Archaeology Section, 1981 Ill DEBORAH PRIDDY (Ed.) Excavations in Essex, 1981 133 Archaeological and Historical Notes SARNIA A. BUTCHER A Roman Stud from Colchester Decorated with Millefiori Enamel . 146 GRACE SIMPSON A Revised Dating for the Colchester Samian Kiln . 149 MARTIN HENIG Two Gold Rings from Colchester . 153 NANCY BRIGGS Current Research on Essex History and Historical Geography, 1982 155 J. M. SKUDDER Periodical Literature on Essex Archaeology and History, 1982 156 JOHN L. RAYMENT Genealogy 159 The Society is grateful to the Colchester Borough Council and the Colchester Civic Society for grants towards the publication of this Memorial Volume. 'Rex' Hull on the Roman Bridge Abutment at Chesters !949 [Facing page I Photo: Grace Sim pson ESSEX ARCHAEOLOGY AND HISTORY Mark Reginald Hull 1897-1976 Archaeology and Roman studies, by the death of Mr. M. R. Hull at Colchester, have lost a devoted practitioner who also was a champion of the modern museum. He was a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries and of the Museums Association. His service in the Second World War was done at Colchester with the Observer Corps; in the First he fought, with commissioned rank, in the Northumberland Fusiliers. Son of a vigorously learned incumbent ofBelford in the north of that county, he was bred to scholarly and outdoor pursuits combined. When peace returned he took the combination into Roman frontier archaeology; as a Durham undergraduate it drew him towards a discipleship to F. G. Simpson, who already had renown for excavations on Hadrian's Wall. His 1925 work with Simpson, at the fort ofGreat Chesters (Aesica), gave vital clues to the Wall's original designing on a broad foundation, which has ever since remained essential to interpreting its history. Professional advancement followed, but far down south. Roman Colchester's military start, and sack in Boudicca's revolt soon after, left it thenceforward as peaceful as its English successor. A Norman peace, in this, had indeed been enforced by the Conqueror's castle, but by the 1920s, in a private park and meadow, the castle was roofless--except where it harboured what was then quite small, a museum. The Corporation, presented by Lord Cowdray with the whole large property, put the museum at the centre of its plannwg ~fr;esh; and Hull was appointed Curator. The change from the north was personal and social 'besides being archaeological. But the road to success lay ahead; it was quickly taken. In and beside the meadow he disclosed unexpected Roman structures; the castle vaults were revealed as having formed the podium of Claudius's temple, famed from Tacitus as scene ofBoudicca's slaughter of its last defenders; her sacking was discovered at a pottery-shop with the whole of its stock inside it; and this was all done while the plans were maturing, through what then was the Office of Works, for roofing and equipping the castle to make it the museum that exists today. When further, in 1930, Colchester was ready for its by-pass road, on a course through the pre-Roman capital site, the Camulodunum of the Britons, new excavations were begun in which Hull had his indispensable place. Ahead offoreseeable development ofall that area, Sheepen and its hill, he worked through to their end in 1939: he had found, in addition to his share of the British and earliest Roman discoveries, two Roman temples and a pottery-works with 'Samian' amongst its products. All that time besides, and on until his still quite recent retirement, he was busy in the new museum, at the castle and the nearby Holly Trees mansion. His older and his younger assistant, though each was remarkable, were mainly self-taught; money was lacking for ancillary staff, and indeed for a great deal else. Yet his Annual Reports were archaeological literature in themselves, for every period documented fully, and throughout with his admirable drawings. And his Research Reports were major works, produced by the Society of Antiquaries. He began them with Camulodunum as author jointly with the present writer, his Roman Colchester covered the mass of its known material remains, and the rest was in his sequel on its Roman Potters' Kilns. The German Archaeological Institute had made him a Corresponding Member. He marked the Roman town's 19th centenary, in 1950, with a festival conference and (then quite novel) an extensive loan exhibition, using his museum's capaciousness to match its treasures with many from elsewhere; 2 OBITUARY there were distinguished speakers, some from the Continent; the ladies ofhis family were hostesses. Finally, his life's last work must be recorded, though its issue has now to be posthumous; it is a further reminder that he always was very much more than a Colchester researcher. Brooches or fibulas, Provincial Roman costume's most frequent accessories, had attracted him for long; and he has left, to be published in the near future, a classified and illustrated corpus of all of them for Britain. Barely a year ago, he was awarded a pension from the Civil List. Rex Hull was a quiet and a patient man. U ndemeath his reticence of manner were strong convictions; the reticence might be broken, indeed, on occasions of their seeming to be flouted. And yet such moments of indignation were rare. He had a wry Northumbrian humour, and it always prevailed. The near-octogenarian kept the character that marked him from early years. Its principles showed in his work, insistence on truth, and steadiness of friendship; unselfish and kindly altogether, it had also its cheerfully convivial side .. He had for several years been a widower, after being long and most happily wedded; there were two daughters of the marriage, and both survive him. C. F. C. HAWKES By kind permission of The Times, Wednesday 1 December 1976 ESSEX ARCHAEOLOGY AND HISTORY Colchester Before the Romans or _Who Were Our Belgae? A lecture of 1950 re-appraised by CHRISTOPHER HAWKES (1980) Thirty years ago a great occasion was approaching at Colchester: the nineteen-hundredth anni­ versary of its Roman foundation. Mr. Hull determined on a Conference to mark it, and a great Exhibition in his Museum. In my obituary tribute to his life, I have touched on both: they were publicly its peak, for they drew a big concourse of admirers--to appreciate his work, view the monuments and sites, and the newest excavations (Mrs. Cotton's and Miss Richardson's), and hear him and others, from Britain and abroad, give lectures. The subject for mine was 'Colchester Before the Romans: the Kingdom ofCunobelin'. The date corresponded to the summer of A.D. 50, when the Roman citizens' Colonia, founded by decree the previous year, with its title from Claudius, had come to be thoroughly established.