Notes for a History of Oulton Written by Rev. Geoffrey Hamish Mercer Circa 1948

1 Notes for a history of Oulton Written by Rev. Geoffrey Hamish Mercer circa 1948 The main text is on the even-numbered pages. Additional notes and comments appear on the odd-numbered pages and usually relate to the text on the adjacent page. Family pedigrees, maps and lists of people in surveys have not been transcribed. A note of what has been omitted is placed on the page. N.B. There are some blank pages. 2 Pre-historic:- (a) Incense Cup Small Incense Cup, which Batty says was in an excellent state of preservation, 1¾” high, 1” deep, 2” across its mouth, and3½ ” between its shoulders, was discovered on 6/10/1873 by workmen in a gravel pit up the Hollins in Oulton Park, under a large mass of gravel. Of baked clay coarse. The 2 small holes, 1” apart, to admit air. No bones within. Associated with burials after cremation, perhaps used to light the funeral pyre, and often deposited inside the cinerary urn. Of the Brythons of the Bronze Ages, of 8th and 7th centuries B.C. These Bronze Age folk settled in the Stanley district, and with their bronze implements were more able to clear the woodlands than the stone-age people. Relics of the early Iron Age are lacking near Wakefield; but the Parisii settled in the East Riding. (contd. p.4) 3 Oldest = “Pilgrims’ Way” on South of Thames, 2000 B.C. Watling Street:- Dover, London, A5 to Holyhead Ikenild Street:- Ermin Street Pevensey, Sussex, London, Lincoln, Humber Foss Way:- Lincoln Leicester to Cornwall Ricknield Street:- St David’s, Worcester, Droitwich, Bourton, Alcester, Birmingham, Lichfield, Derby, Chesterfield, Eckington, Beighton, and on to North of the Tyne. A very interesting speculation about the course of Ricknield Street in Yorkshire is worked out by Miss D. Green of Rotherham. She holds that the old British Track ran from Beighton across the Rother, through Aughton, Guilthwaite, West of Whiston, Oakwood Hall, Sparken Lane, Millgate and Rotherham; and a later Roman-British Street from Beighton to Woodhouse, East of Handsworth, across Rother near old “Knoucth” bridge, Canklow (iron age settlement), Westgate, Rotherham, crossing the Don near Chantry Bridge. Warburton draws a road from Rykenddon (1378), now Rickelton, to Jarrow, though no road can be found there now. The Rycknield Street of old authors ended at Tynemouth. Roman Roads:- Via 8’ broad: Actus for single traffic; Iter only 3’ broad. Then the older Track ran to Greasborough, Upper Haugh, Stubbin Lane, to Swinton, where it was joined by a later Street through Park Gate, Rawmarsh and Rose Hill. On by Birchcliffe Bank & Wath to Bolton upon Deane, West of Thurnseve Hall, Low Grange, Clayton, Stocking Street, to the Camp near South Kirby, Hague Lane, to East. of Hemsworth; or possibly, from Bolton along Street Lane, Hargate Hill, Brierly Common, South Moor, and Whin Hill to Hemsworth. 4 (from p.2) (b) Theory re Ryknield Street If you stand on Sugar Hills and look towards Swillington, you notice that “the dividing of the Manors” (still a track), Hesp Lane, and what is called “Roman Street” on an 18th century map of Swillington (Bullerthorpe Lane forming East boundary of Temple Newsom park), lie in a straight line, and incidentally suggest the original position of “Wridel’s Ford”. I hold that this is a lost part of Ryknield Street, which disappears at Conisborough or Templeborough near Rotherham (Thorpe Station called “Rykenild Thorpe” in 1276 and1285). I suggest it ran north to “the Devil’s Arrows” at Boroughbridge. The above line should pass through Scholes, crossing the Roman Ottley to Tadcaster Road at Thorner, Goldsborough, Arkendale, Minskip (camp), joining Leeming Lane at Kirby Hill. Supporting this view are the old but criticised maps of Warburton (1720), Emanuel Bowen (1723, giving also a Roman Road from Almondbury through Ossett to Woodlesford), Codrington and Ellis (1766), though they suggest a road running more to the East through Methley Park to Nostell. Ryknield Street ran (a) from Worcester, and (b) from Alcester, to Birmingham, Wall and Derby; dividing there to (a) Buxton, and (b) Aldborough and Clay Cross. If critics argue that the above road was redundant and therefore improbable, because of the known Roman Road running parallel through Castleford, only 4½ miles away, I agree that this old pre- Roman track became redundant when the Romans added to their previous roads the later circuit through Castleford & Tadcaster, …… (contd p.6) 5 S. A. Jones states that, to the old inhabitants of Colton, the field on the left of Bullerthorpe Lane south of Colton Lane is known as “Roman Rigg Field”. He also holds that there was a Roman outpost near West Hall, commanding the ford. Ross marks by dotted lines:- South of Bradford to Wakefield South of Dewsbury through Woodlesford to the South of Aberford. (Road of Miss D. Green:- ) From Hemsworth the Roman Street ran through Lady’s Walk, Kinsley Common, West of Wragby, Sharlston, High Street, East of Warmfield, Foxholes near Normanton, East of Altofts, across Calder at Bottomboat, Moscar near Oulton, to Woodlesford. But she thinks a track also ran to the east from Bolton – or from Wath-upon-Dearne, through Harlington Northeast to St. Helen’s Chapel near Barnbrugh, and Hangman’s Stone, to Marr, East of Brodsworth, Lound Lane, Old Street, Castle Hill near Hampole, Hollin Lane, East of Wrangbrook, to join the Roman Road. from Doncaster to Pontefract just after the modern Great North Road. has left it. According to Prof. Whiting the road near Hampole was 18’ wide, and as much as 18” below the present surface. There was probably also a road (as at present) from Nostell on the West of Wragby, to Ackton and Castleford. The Romans probably wanted British wheat. Their system was latifundia or large-scale farms run by slave-labour. It had led to the soil exhaustion of the Sahara. Compare the many remains of the Roman “Villas” of their coloni or ex-serviceman. The slave-labourers were housed in ergastula or underground slave-quarters, and were controlled in gangs by overseers. 6 (from p.4)…… to enable them to cross the rivers running into the Humber; but surely this was not added till c.100 A.D.; and the Iter suggests a road running Southwards, Tadcaster to Slack, where was this? This raises also the question of “Pickpocket Lane”, (is this name a corruption, and if so of what?) running from past Rothwell behind “John o’ Gaunt’s” Inn to Wridel’s Ford in a straight line. This may have been only a pack-horse track, but its straightness suggests something older. It is in line, through Beeston and South Pudsey, with the Roman Road, marked on the Royal Ordnance Survey map, which is lost to the West of Bradford. (Batty says it ran past John o’ Gaunt’s to front of “Pearsy Pit”, part of the Tiled Houses, out by the “Green Engine”, down by Cousin’s Pit, across Wakefield Road, up the Bridle Stile Lane, across 50 acres, along “Clappergate” Lane and through Middleton Wood to Morley. And see Bowen’s map mentioned on p.4 “Part of old Pack-horse road from York to Manchester” The admitted Roman Road from Ribchester and Elslack through Skipton, Addington and Ilkley, runs on past Otley, Chevin farm, the milestone on Carlton Moor, Cockridge Bend in Derbyshire Lane, Adel Fort, King Lane House, Mount Farm, Moss Hall, Alwoodley Gates, Manor House Lane, Wigton Moor Wood, the site of Brandon Farm, nearly to Scarcroft Beck, Jock-o’-Brig’s House, Black Moor, White Hall, Beacon Grove Park, Scarcroft Grange, Grove House Park, Thorner at Brandon Lane end. Roman Coins found at Lingwell Gate in Rothwell, 1697, Outwood 1822, and Thorpe on the Hill 1902. 7000 small Roman coins were found, apparently in a military chest, in 1905 at Smalley Bight Farm, Stanley, owned by Mrs. Wheatley of West Hall. In 1838 a British canoe was dug out of the bed of the Calder at Stanley Ferry, 6’ below the ordinary surface of the river. 17’ 9” long, 3’ 10” wide, shaped out of one tree. (contd p.8) 7 The Anglo-Saxons left the small towns to fall to pieces, and developed other places in the Country. To them what had been Roman was devil-haunted. c. 72,000 acres or 600 hhides. Leeds to Sherburn, 12 miles.; Barwick to Ledstone, 7. Bede says Edwin expelled Cedric, but Cedric founded the Kingdom of Wessex and died in 534. Is Cedric an Anglicised form of the Welsh Caratacus? Perhaps the original Cedric was the leader of a band of Frisian warriors who sailed up the Humber and the Aire, and converted the old British Kingdon of Loidis into a Frisian elmetha, for “Elmet” has a Teutonic sound. 8 (from p.8) For the Kelts see Price’s History of Leeds. Only the Celtic names of the Rivers and some hills remain (Aire, Chevin, etc.); all the rest were renamed by the Angles. The Brythons were a branch of the Celts. This old Gaelic name was Cruithnigh, but those who were partly Romanized were called “Breatain”. But to the Welsh “Prydain” denoted Britain as a whole. The S.W. Brigantes were between the hills of Manchester, Leeds and Sheffield. They were a confederation of Highlanders (so their name, brig = summit), of many clans on the Pennines from the Solway to South Yorkshire. They were mainly Bryrhonic and fierce. Britain was the cradle of Druidism, or possibly Ireland. It was flourishing in 53 B.C. in Anglesey and the Isle of Man. They were magicians, and made use of the old stone circles.

Load more