131 7 THE NORTHGATE RECONSTRUCTION P Holder and J Walker INTRODUCTION have come from the supposedly ancient quarries at Collyhurst some few kilometres north-east of the The Unit was asked to provide advice and fort. As this source was not available, Hollington assistance to Manchester City Council so that the Red Sandstone from Staffordshire was used to form City could reconstruct the Roman fort wall and a wall of coursed facing blocks 200-320 mm long by defences at Manchester as they would have appeared 140-250 mm deep by 100-120 mm thick. York stone around the beginning of the 3rd century (Phase 4). was used for paving, steps and copings. A recipe for the right type of mortar, which consisted of This short report has been included in the volume three parts river sand, three parts building sand, in order that a record of the archaeological work two parts lime and one part white cement, was should be available for visitors to the site. obtained from Hampshire County Council. The Ditches and Roods The Wall and Rampart The Phase 4a (see Chapter 4, Area B) ditches were Only the foundations and part of the first course re-establised along their original line to form a of the wall survived (see Chapter 4, Phase 4, Area defensive circuit consisting of an outer V-shaped A). The underlying foundations consisted of ditch in front of a smaller inner ditch running interleaved layers of rammed clay and river close to the fort wall. cobble. On top of the foundations of the fort wall lay traces of a chamfered plinth (see Chapter 5g) There were three original roads; the main road made up of large red sandstone blocks, behind from the Northgate that ran up to Deansgate, the which was a rough rubble backing. This rubble was intramural road that ran along the rampart, inside set in a coarse yellow mortar, benind which lay the fort, and a spur road (see Chapter 5, Phase 4, the remains of an earlier dumped clay rampart. It Area C) that led off from the main road and which was possible by using the angle of rest of the may have been linked to a route running to the rampart and the height of similar Roman walls, Roman site at Wigan. These roads were such as that at Caer Gybi, to estimate the reconstructed using 50% duckstones (60-80mm) and original height of the fort wall. The size of 50% pebbles (20-40mm) bound with gravel and rolled blocks used in the original construction could to mimic the original surface. also be gauged from part of the wall that was discovered by Professor GBD Jones and others, The Civilian Buildings where it had collapsed into what was left of an inner defensive ditch to the fort. At the heyday of the civilian settlement most of the timber framed walls of the civilian buildings Using this evidence and clues derived from were on red sandstone footings. The 'dwarf walls' existing Roman fort walls, a series of trials were of three buildings were recreated in simplified conducted on how to achieve the correct "look" for form. One building consisted of an outer square the stonework. In order to minimise costs it was room behind which ran two chambers, and is a copy decided that the wall would consist of a sandstone of a building plan recovered by Professor Jones in skim over a concrete base. Construction proved to 1972 (Jones and Grealey 1974). This building is be relatively easy especially as wall details typical of the larger civilian structures and the suggested by discoveries made in other places were original building with its large chamber facing not included, as no evidence for them had come onto the road may have been a small inn. Another from the extensive excavations in the area. The building is typical of those found throughout the red sandstone originally used by the Romans may North-West and in the northern vicus of Manchester 132 (Jones and Grealey 1974). It consists of a long Manchester City Council has recently reconstructed rectangular building, gable-on to the road and the Phase 4 very early 3rd century gateway of the divided into two chambers. Again the plan was fort to its full height (see Chapter 4, Phase 4, based upon examples from the 1972 excavations and Area A). Despite the previous excavations such buildings are thought to have constituted the undertaken in the area it was not until 1982 that normal house for most civilians. The third all the foundations of the gateway were fully building is modelled on a small two room booth exposed.These consisted of two L-shaped extensions (F727, Phase 3b, Area C) discovered during the to the wall and a central spine in the middle of 1982 season. the roadway, designed to support two arches. This plan is not typical of military gateways of the In order to soften the impact of the site and period around the turn of the 2nd century, but is intergrate its disparate elements, it is bordered paralleled to an extent by that found at by plants selected from species thought to have Bewcastle. Liversidge (1969, 63) proposed a been introduced to Britain by the Romans (Godwin reconstruction of the north-eastern postern gate 1975,474-81). at Colchester of c200 AD, which consists of a simple chamber with three windows over a single For the first phase of the scheme the Unit passage. Much of the outer face of the Colchester prepared a 45 page booklet on Roman walling gate was found lying on the ground nearby and techniques and the writer visited the site on a included fragments of two original windows. number of occasions during construction to make recommendations on specific problems. Gateways formed of two simple internal wings have been found in Romano-British town defences at The Gateway places such as the south and north gates at Silchester, the north-east gate at Colchester, the The Basic Plan west gate of the "old town" at Lincoln, and the London gate at Canterbury. Plate 7.1 The reconstructed site showing gateway, roads and vicus buildings 133 Research (Richmond and Childe 1942) suggests Given this hypothesis about the basic form of the however that, overall, gateways of this period and gate, it was possible to draw up a draft design type were based upon a unified design drawn from which was circulated to a number of British and earlier Augustan city gates which usually foreign scholars with an acknowledged expertise on consisted of circular or rectangular towers the subject. As their comments on the basic flanking a central room or rooms with a elevation were favourable, the problem had to be crenellated walkway above (Richmond !930).The late faced of how to provide enough detail to make it 2nd century Porta Nigra at Triers and the Porta possible for the architect, Mr Hatcherd, to Asinaria cAD 270 at Rome display this form. A produce working drawings. Several sources of classic example of a roofed windowed information were available: over-chambered gate with twin towers is preserved in a Roman clay model from Intercisa (Dunaujvaros) (a) The excavated evidence (Lengyel and Radon 1980, Plate LXI). Less well known is a 4th century Roman bronze model of a (b) The evidence from existing Roman twin portal gate with chamber over discovered in structures or literary works Sarmatian territory and now housed in the Hungarian National Museum (Lengyel and Radan I960, (c) Modern academic opinion. Plate XCV). Originally, the Bewcastle and the Manchester gates were probably simplified versions It was felt that the weight to be given to each of this basic design, in which the flanking towers source should be, wherever possible, that were not incorporated but the central chamber excavated evidence would supersede Roman sources, retained. This chamber was supported by a massive which would supersede received opinion. From this central spine which was set slightly back from the it was possible to draw up the following line of the wall, thus allowing small spines at contingency table of evidence for each element of the end of the rampart wall walks from which to the gateway on the basis of the frequency of the overlook the face of the gate. evidence known to the author. Plate 7.2 The outer face of the reconstructed Northgate 134 TABLE 7.1 SOURCE RANKING Problem Excavated Evidence Other Sites or Roman Academic Opinion Literary Evidence The Basic Plan 2 3 The Stonework 3 2 The Arches 2 Gate Chamber 2 The Fighting Platform 2 The Inscriptions 2 The resultant drawing was then modified in response to pratical architectural considerations. The following sources were then used to provide the details for the reconstruction: Plate 7.3 The outer face of the gate seen from the inner defensive ditch 135 Table 7.2 limited to a maximum of I 1.5 feet. This PRIMARY EVIDENCE USED IN THE RECONSTRUCTION calculation is based upon allowing 6T1 to the top of the impost, an arch radius of 4' 7.5", 5' 3" or Problem Primary Evidence 5' 6.5", 2' for the voussoirs, 2' 7.5" for the springer and 2' for the dedication tablet The Basic Plan The excavated remains (Richmond and Childe 1942, 145). The top of the impost was set at cl.7m in keeping with that The Stonework The excavated remains surviving at Great Chesters. The arch heights were set lower than Richmond and ChMde's calculations The Arches in order to ensure that it was possible to walk Height Richmond and Childe through at rampart level (Hobley 1982, 228).