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BLACKSTONE EDGE.

TRANSACTIONS

ON SOME RECENT DISCOVERIES OF ROMAN REMAINS IN LANCASHIRE AND CHESHIRE.

By IV. Thompson Watkin.

(Read Nov, 131)1, 1884.)

THE last few years have been very rich in discoveries of Roman remains in all parts of the kingdom-; and Lancashire and Cheshire, though not yielding as much as some other counties, have yet each furnished their quota. These I now wish to describe, taking first such antiquities as, since the publication of my Roman Lancashire, have been recorded as found in this county, and then proceeding to describe those found m Cheshire.

A portion of these discoveries was made years ago, but has only now been brought before the public, through the printing, &c., of private MSS. For instance, the Surtees Society have just issued a volume of letters and extracts from diaries, of the cele brated Dr. Stukeley, which have been arranged under the heads of counties. Both Lancashire and Cheshire appear in this list, though the contribution to Cheshire is slight. At pages 240-1, there is an account given of the discovery of a tile tomb at Lancaster, in J 7S3) in a garden, " on digging up the ground for new founda tions." And it is said that very heavy rains "had such an effect " upon the earth, that the whole sepulchre tumbled out fast and " firmly cemented, as if the same had been one intire piece." " The whole tomb, bottom and ends, sides and top, consisted of "tiles, strongly and closely cemented together." These tiles, which were 15^ by 19 or 20 inches, composed the inside of the sepulchre, and upon one corner of each were inscribed the letters A L s B , which are undoubtedly an abbreviation for AL(AE)

2 On some Recent Discoveries of Roman

S(E)B(OSIANAE), the name of the cavalry regiment which garri soned Lancaster. The words occur in full on Roman tiles found at Quernmore, near that town, one of which is now in the posses sion of Miss ffarington. Mr. Peele, who was Stukeley's informant, adds that " round the tiles was a stratum of mortar, harder than " stone, on the outside of which great huge stones were fixed at " its first construction, and remained as firmly fixed as if they had " all been of one substance and nature. When the rude labourers " went to work with their tools to separate the materials, they " could not do it, but were constrained to break all to pieces."

The skeleton of the defunct remained in the tomb ; but who he was we shall never know, as no inscription was found, though, from the nature of the sepulchre, he must have been a man of rank perhaps one of the commanders of the regiment.

On pages 241-2 there are letters from the same correspondent, dated in 1754, describing a Roman altar found at Lancaster, which appears to have borne an inscription of six lines, and on the sides the usual representations of the sacrificial instruments. Only a few letters of the inscription are given, from which nothing can be made out. It is said that on the top were " three elliptical " cavities," which subsequent to its discovery were struck off. A few coins, one of Postumus, with the reverse HERC DEVSONIENSI, were found under the altar. All of these articles, it is sad to say, are now lost.

During the last month, whilst going systematically through the contents of the Warrington Museum, to my surprise I came upon the rubbing of a fragment of a very fine inscription of the reign of the Emperor Trajan, found also at Lancaster.* From enqui ries I have since made, I have ascertained that it was discovered in 1863, during the re-seating of the nave of the parish church. A number of loose stones, of which this was one, were taken up from under the old pews. The inscription is

i M p . N E RTRAIA N

AV G

C* Through the courtesy of the Warrington Free Library and Museum Committee I have

obtained the loan of this rubbing, for exhibition this evening.

Remains in Lancashire and Cheshire. 8

and would read when entire (expanded) Imperatori Nervae Trajano Aug^^sto, &-'c. The " c" in the fourth line has probably been the commencement of the word con(ors], and referring to a cohort which had a share in building the station.

This inscription, the oldest as yet found in Lancashire, is most important, fragmentary though it is. It proves that the castrum at Lancaster was in existence in the reign of Trajan, if, indeed, it is not a slab set up at the time of the building. Previously, a milestone of Hadrian was the earliest inscription found near the town, and this had led me to think that emperor might possibly have been the builder; but we now find that we can trace the existence of the fortress in the reign of his predecessor, who reigned between A.D. 98-117.

The inscription fell into the hands of the late Canon Turner, Vicar of Lancaster, and is now preserved at the Vicarage by his successor, Canon Alien ; but no antiquary seems to have seen it, and except a short paragraph published in a local paper at the time of its discovery, it has remained inedited.

At Manchester, too, there have been some discoveries, which remain inedited. In the Manchester Chronicle, for August 22nd, 1840, the following paragraph occurs :

" On Saturday (Aug. 15) as a labouring man was occupied in " digging a piece of ground, belonging to Mr. Thomas Owen, for " the purpose of forming a foundation of a house, at the corner " of Trafford street, and Crown street, Deansgate, in the neigh- " bourhood of Knott Mill, he found a vessel of earthenware, in " which was deposited a large number of coins of the Roman " mint, bearing the effigies of Domitian and other Roman em- " perors. The number was somewhere about two hundred, and " the metal, of which the coins were composed, silver, with the " exception of ten or a dozen of gold."

The account proceeds to state that the finder concealed the coins, and afterwards exchanged them at public-houses in the neighbourhood ; and they are consequently also lost to the anti quarian world.

At the Warrington Museum, also, are preserved several large

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fragments of embossed and plain Samian ware, found in Castle- field (the Roman station) at Manchester, which have not been referred to by any previous writer. They were found in a sort of pit, formed of clay, and cut in the red sandstone rock. This pit was four feet wide at the top and basin-shaped at the bottom. One of the fragments is marked with the potter's stamp (QVINTI . M.) Quinti. M(anu) which is another addition to the few inscriptions of this nature found at Manchester.

A further interesting fact connected with Manchester is this. A Roman altar, bearing on its face a dedication to Fortune, was found there in A.D. 1612, which, after having been at Hulme Hall for a century and a half, was purchased by Sir Ashton Lever for his unfortunate museum, finally dispersed by auction in A.D. 1806, since when nothing had been heard of it, and it was supposed to be lost. In May last, however, when I was investigating the contents of the Ashmolean Museum, at Oxford, I was delighted to find this altar preserved there, amongst the Arundel marbles. It had been lying in a garden in Hertfordshire for years, and was presented to the Museum, in 1875, by the present Dean of Chichester.

At the Roman station at Overborough, in the north of the county, the Rev. Canon Ware, Vicar of Kirkby Lonsdale, has been making a thorough examination of the surface of the ground, which is mostly within the park of Burrow Hall, the seat of the Fenwick family. It has been thought, till lately, that no vestige of the station was visible above ground, but the examination has revealed the fact that portions of the mound are still traceable on the east and west sides, and along the whole length of the southern side. Close to the north-west angle of the station, at the back of Burrow Hall, a few yards of both rampart and ditch exist, well marked; and near the S.W. angle it seems probable that the foundations of the wall exist in the mound. In various places in the gardens, and beneath the lawn, foundations of walls of the interior buildings have been come upon, and foundations are visible on the surface, near the centre of the western side.

The evidence as to the existence of the Roman station at

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Wigan is also increasing. Three 3rd brass Roman coins, in good preservation, were found there in 1883. Two of them were of Maximianus, and one of Constantius Chlorus, and all had the same reverse, GENIO . POPVLT . ROMANI .

I have also found, from the Manchester papers of September, 1848, that between thirty and forty Roman urns, containing cal cined bones and charcoal, were found at that time at Wigan, in lowering the yard of the gas works to the level of the street. They embraced varieties of the black, grey, and common red Roman pottery. This discovery marks plainly the site of a cemetery. It was previously known that one or two Roman urns had been found on this site, but except in newspaper paragraphs this dis covery has remained inedited. The urns were mostly broken, and were found at a depth of about two feet.

At the small Roman station at Walton-le-Dale, near Preston, some slight discoveries have occurred, chiefly of coins, Samian ware, &c. Two of the coins I exhibit they are both of the " small brass" series. One is of Gallienus the reverse is VBERITAS . AVG . Figure of Ubertas to left. In the field e The other is of Constantius II. Reverse, GLORIA . EXERCITVS . Two soldiers standing, each bearing a spear. Two standards between them. In exergue PL . c.

The next discovery was made on the 28th February last, when some labourers, in digging clay for the Littlewood Brick and Tile Works, in the township of Ulnes Walton, close to Croston rail way station, came upon a vessel of coarse grey pottery, contain ing, it is believed, about 200 Roman coins. The vessel was completely broken into pieces by the spade of the excavator, and the coins were dispersed among the workmen; but Miss ffarington, who is lady of the manor, succeeded in recovering sixty-five, which she sent to me for inspection. I found them to be, with the exception of three of base silver, all of the " third brass " series, and ranging from A.D. 253 to circa A.D. 264. They were of the following reigns: Valerianus, i; Gallienus, 2 ; Salonina, 2 ; Saloninus, 5 ; Postumus, 53; uncertain (owing to their fragmentary state), 2. It will at once be seen that the large

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proportion of the latest coins (those of Postumus) point to the fact of the hoard having been concealed in his reign, and probably when it was considerably advanced whilst the absence of the coins of Victorinus, who was joint emperor with Postumus during the last two years of his reign (A.D. 265-267), would lead us to infer that the concealment took place before the elevation of Victorinus, so that A.D. 264 is about the approximate date when the coins were deposited in the ground. The urn was found at a depth of about three feet, but with a few exceptions the coins were in an indifferent state of preservation. None of the reverses were rare, but on those of Postumus they were of twenty-one different types.

The intelligence of this discovery, being widely spread by means of the Preston newspapers, was the means of bringing to light information as to two other " finds " of a similar nature, in the same part of the county. In the Preston Guardian^ of the 15th March, the Rev. W. Bulpit, rector of Crossens, near South- port, wrote to the effect, that " some ten years ago I had coins " proffered to me, which had been found between the marl and " superincumbent moss, at Hundred End;" and in the same paper, on the same date, Mr. Thomas Marshall, of Birkdale, wrote " About twenty-eight years ago, several small 'finds' of " silver Roman coins were made in a field on the Birkdale side " of Halsall Moss. Some of the coins were in a splendid state of " preservation, others could not be deciphered. I have one of " them in my possession now, inscribed HADRIANUS AUGUSTUS, " almost in mint condition. There were also some of Vespasian's " equally as good. They were found on the surface, and must " necessarily have been turned up by the plough."

Such are the chief discoveries in Lancashire, and I now turn to those which have been made within the last two years at Chester, for, with very slight exceptions, this is the only site which has yielded anything of the Roman era, during the period I have named.

In April, 1883, a small passage was cut through the north wall of Chester, a little to the west of the Northgate, in order to form

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a gateway, and the walls were found at this-point to consist of a much-decayed wall in the centre, probably Norman or Edwardian, encased on the northern side by a strong wall, built of Roman stones, probably taken from some large Roman building. Amongst these stones were portions of cornices, friezes, and part of a highly- ornamented sepulchral cippus, bearing an inscription. The latter in its present state is the upper left-hand half of the monument, and a cube of about two feet square, evidently so cut in order to fit it for a building stone. The front bears the inscription, the left-hand side bears the representation of a wreath between two fluted columns, the wreath extending from column to column. The other side is broken off, and the back is at present plain. The inscription on the front is :

D MM . A P R O M . F . F A

The reading is most undoubtedly D (it's) M (ani&us) M (areas) Apro(nius) ....... M (am) F (iliut) Fa (to) (tribu), and hasbeen followed by the age of the deceased. It is unfortunate that the cognomen of Marcus Apronius has been lost. The letters are very fine, of the best period of art, and are two inches and a half in height, the stops are triangular.

I have also recently found in the Chester Museum, one or two other inscriptions which have remained unpublished. The first is the upper half of a fine altar dedicated to Mars Conservator, the only one recorded as found in Britain bearing this dedication. The letters remaining are

r> F. o MARTICO N SERV..... vs

The commencement of the third line is worn off, owing to the soft nature of the stone, and there have probably been two or three lines on the lower and lost portion of the altar. On the right side there is the representation of a head, eared and horned, on the left side a praefericulum is engraved, and it has a large

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focus for the offering. This altar was found as far back as 1875, at the foot of Newgate Street, close to its junction with Pepper Street, and just inside the city walls, on the premises of Mr. Storrar, a veterinary surgeon, when he was levelling some raised ground in his yard, which was full of ancient debris. It remained lying about this yard for several years, until noticed by Mr. F.. Potts, of Chester, who obtained it, and presented it to the museum. The reading of the extant portion of the inscription is Deo Marti Conservatori (inscriptions to Mars with this title are very rare in the whole Roman empire) which has been followed by the name of the dedicator, &c.

Two inscriptions, of the class termed " centurial," have also been recently brought to light at Chester. One is inscribed thus

> Q.MAX.

i.e., Cenluria Q(uinctii) Max(imi). " The century of Quinctius Maximus." It is 16 inches by 6. The other bears the letters

o Q . T E R N .

the E and R being ligulate, and reading Centuria Quinti Terentii. " The century of Quintus Terentius." This stone is 14 inches by 6.

In 1883, the Dean of Chester kindly entered into an arrange ment with me, for some excavations to be made in the Deanery Field, situated within the north-eastern confines of the city, bounded on its southern and western sides by the Deanery, and the Abbey Green, on its northern and eastern by the city walls. For some centuries the field has borne the name of the " Green of the Walls." The Lancashire and Cheshire Antiquarian Society having decided upon a grant, and some other antiquaries also assisting, on the 24th January, this year, operations began by sinking a shaft, 7 feet by 35^ feet, immediately beneath the walls, near the north-west angle of the field, and 19 feet from the Abbey Green boundary wall. The soil was found to be entirely made ground, and full of fragments of Roman pottery. The city wall at this point was of very poor work, and probably of recent re-construction. The rock was come upon at a depth of i o feet. From this point a trench, 3 feet wide, was cut in a south-


easterly direction, to the distance of 187 feet, taking a diagonal direction into the field. On the 26th January, at 21 feet from the inner side of the city wall, the N.W. angle of an ancient building was come upon. Its walls were subsequently traced and partially laid bare, and it was found to be a parallelogram, 70 feet in length E. and W. by 24 in width N. and S. It lay parallel to the north wall of the city. It was formed of blocks of red sandstone, axe dressed, about a foot square, and in 6-inch courses. The N.W. angle (the portion first discovered) was found to be the highest portion of the building remaining. It was 8 feet high, and its summit was only 2 feet beneath the surface.

It is quite uncertain to what period this building belonged. The mortar was poor formed of river sand, lime, small pebbles, and fragments of sandstone. There are instances of this mortar in late Roman work. No decisive architectural features occurred ; but the fragment of a tablet with a moulding, as if formed for the reception of an inscription, similar to those in Roman buildings, was found. The base was on the solid rock, but there was no plinth or base mould; a few rough projecting stones, about 3 inches thick, were the only intervention between the wall and the rock foundation. In the interior, about 3 feet 9 inches above the rock, a groove was formed in the face of each wall, as if a wooden floor had been inserted at this level. From this fact some of the Chester antiquaries have decided that the building was of a late date, probably of the i3th century, and one of the outbuildings of the Abbey. But it is certain that on the plan of the Abbey buildings, taken at the dissolution, none occur further north than the site of the present Deanery, and the building now discovered was considerably to the north of the boundary wall which enclosed them. All the old maps of the city shew the spot merely as a field ; and it therefore is evident that this ruined building was buried beneath the surface at least three hundred years since. The soil above it had, without doubt, been brought to the spot. Roman tiles, mortar, pottery, and glass, mediaeval floor tiles and pottery, and similar remains of the last


two or three centuries (in the upper layer) covered it. Without a complete excavation of its area and outline it would be impossible to pronounce a satisfactory opinion as to its age.

Between this building and the termination of the trench, the number of stones found increased. In some places they assumed the appearance of rude foundations of walls (as I think, of soldiers' quarters or barracks) -the distance between these walls lessening as the excavation approached the centre of the city, until at last they were within a few feet of each other. The last half of the trench particularly shewed this. Large masses of Roman con crete and roofing tiles, pottery, &c., were lying above them, as if universal destruction had occurred in the neighbourhood ; but the narrowness of the trench precluded a more systematic inves tigation.

Singularly enough, no coins were found, and only a portion of an inscribed tile, which, when entire, had borne the stamp of the Twentieth Legion. The letters remaining were : L E G. Unin- scribed tiles were numerous ; Samian and Upchurch ware, all fragmentary, and Roman glass and cream-coloured ware (in the same condition) occurred, with boars' tusks, oyster shellSj and the usual debris from Roman sites.

But still more important discoveries were made at Chester, in May last. At that time Mr. F. Bullin was pulling down an old cottage named " White Friar's Cottage," situated on the north side of the street named White Friars, at the corner of another small street named Holland's Court. A new house was to be built upon the site, and in excavating the cellar for it the various remains now to be described were found. The first 3 feet from the surface yielded nothing of interest, but at that depth the workmen came upon what appeared to have been a fire-place with a moulded hearth-stone, and adjoining to it a floor paved with glazed mediaeval tiles, of a green colour, bearing a variety of geometric, and a few heraldic, patterns. The remains of this floor were slight, only about 3 to 4 square yards being left, and the tiles had evidently been disturbed, as there were com paratively few of them in proper sequence. They were nearly


all broken, probably from the fact that the floor had, at some later period, been that of a coal cellar, judging from several inches of slack covering it. The tiles were several hundred in number, and have been identified as belonging to the church of the monastery of White Friars, and are of I4th century date.

The excavation extended 10 feet backwards from the street. Between the depth of 4 feet to 7 feet, which was the lowest reached, several fragments of columns, 16 inches in diameter, occurred. At the right-hand furthest corner a portion of a column, 2 feet in diameter, was found at a depth of 5 feet; and in removing it another portion of a column, of similar diameter but 9 feet in length, was found lying at right angles to it this latter pointing north and south. In the left-hand corner of the excavation a portion of a third column, of the same diameter, was found, pointing in the same direction. In lowering the ground further, a platform, built of massive stones, was brought to light, and upon it were two large stones which had formed the bases of the fallen columns. The stones of this platform, at the point where the bases of the columns occurred, rested upon 2 feet of concrete, which was composed of boulder stones, lime, coarse sand, and gravel, but no pounded tile was in it. The boulders varied from 4 to 18 inches in size. In the other parts the platform foundation was formed of close-laid rough blocks of sandstone, with a layer of sand between them and the rock. The stones forming the bases of the columns weighed about a ton and a half, and the columns were about 14 feet apart. The platform stones were 4 to 5 feet square, and about 2 feet in thickness.

The building fronted the present street called White Friars, which was found to be superimposed upon a Roman street, running in the same direction, and the latter was come upon at the lowest level reached, i.e., seven feet. It was composed of broken Roman tile, sandstone, and pebbles, but its width was not ascertained. The portion of the frontage of the building laid bare was 24 feet, but it was traced 14 feet further to the south, under the adjoining house, the builders of which, rather than


remove the massive stones of the platform, had thrown an arch over them. In the soil which covered the platform various frag ments of a cornice and capitals were found, from which the building would seem to have been in the Corinthian style. The portions of the columns, &c., were very little worn ; and from this it has been argued that the building was erected during the latter half of the Roman occupation, and thrown down soon after the departure of the Twentieth Legion from Chester. That it was destroyed by violence seems certain from all the surroundings. In places just above the platform level, a layer of wood charcoal was found, indicating probably that the roof and other woodwork of the building were destroyed by fire. From there being a foot of soil between the mediaeval pavement and the highest part of the Roman level, we should infer that the remains were covered to that depth with soil at the time of the erection of the mona stery.

Besides the architectural fragments, which were found in the soil covering the platform, there was a great quantity of broken Roman pottery of all descriptions. Samian ware amphorae, mor- taria, &c., occurred, but no perfect specimens ; also a number of tiles, bearing the stamp of the Twentieth Legion, all more or less broken, and one or two annillae and fibulae, of bronze.

Lastly, in the same superincumbent soil thirty-five coins were found, all, with the exception of a " second brass" of Carausius, of the " third brass" series. They were in wretched condition, and only the reverse of one could be made out. They appear to be of the following reigns : Gallienus, i ; Postumus, i ; Victori- nus, 2. ; the Tetrici, 8 ; Claudius Gothicus, 3 (one with reverse of CONSECRATIO) ; Carausius, 3 ; Constantine the Great, 5 ; Con- stantinopolis, i ; illegible, n.

It will be seen that these coins cover a period of about sixty years, between A.D. 260 and A.D. 320. This seems to confirm the idea that the building was not erected until a late period. What was its use ? Present appearances would seem to point to the fact that it had been a temple. But this may shortly be made more clear, for on the opposite side of Holland's Court


there is another old building, now used as a stable, belonging also to Mr. Bullin. He intended pulling this down in a short time, but he has most liberally promised me to have it pulled down at once, with a view to having the ground excavated and the result known in time to embrace it in my forthcoming "Roman Cheshire." In fact, I believe it is now in course of demolition. It will then be seen whether the platform -of the building extends much farther, and various other details may be expected. The small basin-shaped cavities in some of the stones are puzzling. They appeared to be worn in the stone rather than cut in it.

The last discovery of the Roman period at Chester occurred about a fortnight since, in the course of an excavation between the Grosvenor Hotel and the city wall (close to the east gate), when the left-hand portion of an inscribed altar, which had been split perpendicularly down the middle, as if to fit it for a building stone, was found. On the left side, within a panel, there is a figure of a bird, which has all the characteristics of a goose; and on the remaining half of the back is a portion of what seems to have been a serpent, but this is doubtful. On the remaining portion of the face the altar is thus inscribed :

10OPT

MAX

V

The first line is in very large letters, the others are smaller. The base (on the front) is broken off, but judging by the size of the panel on the side, there would be room for at least another line of an inscription ; and after the v, in the fourth line, there appears to be a stop. The reading has certainly been Jo(vi) Opt(imo) Max(imo); but whether v has been part of the formula v.s., for V(oto) S(olutum), or part of the name of the dedicator, must remain unknown. The height of the altar, which is formed of the local red sandstone, is 3 feet 10 inches, and at the angles are pilasters returned on each face; they bear two flutes each, and terminate in a foliated capital, resembling the Corinthian style.

14 On some Recent Discoveries of Roman Remains, &*c.

Finally, whilst I was writing this paper, eleven Roman coins, which had been found singly, during farming operations, at Ribchester, were sent to me for inspection and classification. I found two of them to be family or Consular coins, of silver; one of the Curtian gens ; one was a " second brass " of Antonia, wife of Drusus and mother of Claudius Caesar; two others, of silver, were of Marcus Aurelius and Septimius Severus ; another was a "second brass" of Philip; and there were "third brasses" of Tetricus, jun., Carausius, Constantine the Great, Constantinus II., and Constans.

Such are the principal discoveries of Roman remains made in Lancashire and Cheshire within the last two years. There are a few other minor " finds," but they possess no particular interest. It is, however, worth noticing that for a long period no such number of discoveries have been made, either valuable or otherwise; and from the increasing interest taken in archaeological researches, we may look forward with confidence to almost a yearly continuance of fresh excavations, from which new light will continually be thrown upon the time when Imperial Rome held possession of our island as one of her dependencies.

P.S. The illustration facing page 10 gives an accurate repre sentation of the White Friars' discoveries at Chester.

mac wiih arch turned over thenains,which continueHouse, channel for water

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Wall of House wild arch turned over theRoman Renains,which continueunder theHouse.V-shaped channel for waterThis end cf column is cut off to admitof wa!! beinq built.Square sunk channel 3feet wide.Stone figured in bas-ro.'ief,snRw:'ng partsof two bocies.Roman floor of broken tiles & concrete.in various pi aces, on same I evw I in whichstamped Portions were found.Portion of Mediaeval Tile floor.

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