Itinerarium curiosum (centuria I) : $b or, an account of the antiquities, and remarkable curiosities in nature or art, observed in travels through Great BritainStukeley, William
History
Itinerarium curiosum (centuria I) : $b or, an account of the antiquities, and remarkable curiosities in nature or art, observed in travels through Great Britain
Stukeley, William
Great Britain -- Antiquities -- Early works to 1800; Great Britain -- Description and travel -- Early works to 1800
We kept the road all the way, though sometimes it passes over little
bogs, and at last about Winterton is inclosed: it terminates in some
arable, where it is well nigh lost a mile south of Wintringham.
Upon a rising ground at the end of the Roman road, a little to the
right, and half a mile east of the present Wintringham, stood the
old Roman town, of which they have a perfect knowledge, and ploughed
up great foundations within memory: it is now a common, skirted by
the marshes upon the Humber: the soil hereabouts is clay. This site
of Old Wintringham, as called, was almost inclosed with water in its
first condition, having only a slip of land towards the Roman road
as an entrance: the valley westward between it and the town is now
called the Old Haven, where three elm-trees stand: the east is bounded
by the mouth of the Ankham, which I suppose is _ang_ in British,
broad, _avon_, river, from its broad marshes. The city was ploughed
up six years ago, and great numbers of antiquities found, now lost;
great pavements, chimney-stones, &c. often breaking their ploughs: in
several places they found streets made of sea-sand and gravel. It is
a _peninsula_ between the Humber and Ankham, and had most opportunely
a fine spring on the east side, which no doubt was embraced by the
Romans: it is likewise a great rarity in nature, arising so near the
sea in a clayey marsh: there is stone-work left round it, and an iron
ladle to drink at, which is done frequently by travellers, as with a
religious necessity. Several intakes have been made beyond this city in
memory of man, which drives the Humber farther off, and increases the
marsh: it is half a mile between it and old town. The old haven-mouth
is called Flashmire. This place is over-against Brough, the Roman
town on the Yorkshire shore; but it is rather more eastward: so that
with the tide coming in they ferried over very commodiously thither,
and even now they are forced to take the tide. _Buck-bean trefoil_
grows upon all the bogs hereabouts. The bearing of the end of the
Roman way is precisely north and south, as at Lincoln; so that it is
a true meridian line from the west end of the cathedral. The present
Wintringham is a dirty poor place, but still a corporation; and the
mayor is chosen only out of one street, next the old town, where was a
chapel: the bell of it now hangs in a wooden frame by the pillory, and
makes a most ridiculous appearance. Here is still a ferry from a small
creek kept open by some freshes; it was ill judged of travellers to
desert the old Roman way and ferry, and turn the road to Barton, (where
the Humber is much broader and very dangerous) for no other reason but
because it is somewhat nearer and over-against Hull: but the saving
three miles riding does not compensate for the time or hazard of so
uncouth a passage. I am persuaded the old name of this station was
_Abontrus_, the same as the name of the river, whence they have formed
the mimic Wintringham.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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