HER 5433 DESCRIPTION:-

Romano-British burials in lead coffins together with coins, pottery, glass found c1820 in brickworks between St James' Station and the River Chelt.{1} Workmen found long chests containing bones, glass bottles, vases and coins - also lead coffins {4}{3}. Site now car park and semi-derelict industrial estate.{3} NB accounts by Goding in 1853 edition and Edwards' Hist of Cheltenham differ in detail. At the brickworks between the GWR station and the Chelt. Stone coffins were said to have been found also in the property adjoining, then occupied by Mr Weaver; also on the other side of the Chelt. The coffins were made from pieces of rough stone placed edgeways, with a large one (in one instance, two) upon the top, according to an eyewitness account given to Goding some years later. Some lead coffins were sold to Mr Gore, a plumber. (A Mr JG Gore, Plumber, of St Georges Place, a stone's throw from the find spot, is mentioned in the List of Electors of the Borough of Cheltenham 1841. It seems unlikely that Goding would have mentioned him by name if the statement about the lead coffins was untrue. The account sounds like a R-B cemetery, but there may be some confusion with the account of the tumulus (Glos SMRs 5421-2), also the Civil War discoveries (Glos SMR 6631){5}.