Some Account of the Roman Roads in the Parish of Halifax, with The

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PEOCEEDINGS

OP THE GEOLOGICAL AND POLTTECHNIC SOCIETY &t 0)1 SiSeet ^tCamg of gnftsl^ite,

AT THE FIFTY-SBVEHTH. MEETIHG, Trp.T.Tt XS THE lECTDBB BOOH

OF THE UCTEKABY AND PHILOSOPHICAI. SOCEETT, HAT.TTAX, OH FBTDAT,

JULY 12TH, 1861, AT THEEE O'CLOCK IN THE AFTEENOON.

JOHN WATEKHOUSE, ESQ., F.E.S., Vice-President, in the Chair. On the motion of Dr. "Wm. Alexander, Dr. Lister, of Shibden Hall, near Halifax, was elected a member of the Society. The Chairman then called upon FRANCIS A. LEYLAND, Esq., to read the first paper, entitled—

SOME ACCOUNT OF THE ROMAN ROADS IN THE PARISH OF HALIFAX; WITH THE RESPECTIVE CLAIMS OF ALMONDBURY, SLACK, AND GREETLAND TO THE SITE OF CAMBODFNUM CONSIDERED. The subject I have been requested to bring before you to-day, relating to the roads of Boman construction or adoption, which are beKeved to have passed through the parish of Halifax, is one of general as well as of local interest; for, whatever tends to throw light upon the distant and obscure periods of local history, renders more clear the general view of times and events which relate to the country at large. And it is the primary object of Archaeological investigation to multiply the evidences of legitimate history by furnishing indisputable data on which to form correct Downloaded from http://pygs.lyellcollection.org/ by guest on October 1, 2021

183 ideas of the ages remote from our own. But I am con strained to admit that I approach the subject of my Paper with considerable diffidence; for, in my search after informa tion relating to it, in the pages of our local histories, I have found little to assist, and much to discourage. On these authorities the ancient roads of our parish would seem, even a century ago, to have been few in number and traced with difficulty. Watson enumerates two—one from York to Manchester ; the other from Manchester to Aldborough. Of the former he says, " that having gained the height of Lindley Moor, it exhibited ' a curious remain of antiquity ;* that it was considerably raised above the level of the ad joining ground; that it entered ' a field called Tarbarrells,' and afterwards, being lost in the enclosures, could be traced no further." * The late E,ev. Joseph Hunter says of this iter, "that all idea of actually tracing it by indicia yet remaining is vain." f This learned author is also silent about the branch of the same road which must inevitably have passed by the station at Lindwell, in the township of Greet- land, the spot where the altar " Divis Civitatis Brigantum,"^: and other heavy remains of the Roman town, which he believes to have been the Cambodunum of the Itinerary, were found in the sixteenth century. Of the road from Manchester to Aldborough, Watson says nothing. Indeed, he does not follow any road which attracted his attention, to any great distance from the point at which he commences it; and he generally ends with an expression of his inability to say anything definite or conclusive about it. Dr. Dunham Whitaker, in his account of our parish, affi)rds no support to the present inquiry; from his silence, one might infer that

• Watson, p. 39, + Communication to the Society of Antiquarians on the Site of Cambodunum, p. 4. } Divis Civitatis Brigantum, et numini Augustorum, Titus AureJius Aorelianus dedicat pro se et suis susceptum merito animo grato solvit. Downloaded from http://pygs.lyellcollection.org/ by guest on October 1, 2021

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no Roman roads at all existed in this parish at the time he was employed on his Loides and Elmete. It is unnecessary to multiply instances of the unsatisfactory allusions to this subject which are found in the local topo graphies of our neighbourhood, and which so much discourage any further inquiry into the ancient roads of our district. But I may add other obstacles and diflB.culties which, in more recent times, have been thrown in the way of the subject on which we are engaged. They are of the kind which have arisen from the operation of the general and local Turnpike Acts, passed in the reign of Geo. lY., by which the repair and improvement of highways was vested in trustees. That the trustees, appointed for the purpose, energetically em ployed the powers entrusted to them, the highways of this district abimdantly show. Such have been the renovations, reconstructions, diversions, and enclosures, directed by the Acts referred to, that the highways which formerly retained their ancient pavements, as a general rule, no longer exhibit any of the usual characteristics of either British or Roman roads. Several instances occur in this parish, of the Com missioners of Turnpike Trusts, in carrying on the repairs of highways of known antiquity, under their supervision, having unavoidably, no doubt, obliterated all traces of ancient construction, which old and still living witnesses remember to have existed before the passing of the local Turnpike Acts. Warburton, the author of an account of the Roman wall and a herald, I believe living in the 17th century, says, in a MS. work of his, preserved in the British Museum, that when he traced the military way from Aldborough to Manchester, through this parish, it was paved all the way. The pavement of the iter from Ilkley to Manchester may still be seen in Fincle-street, in the township of Sowerby, and elsewhere along its course. Downloaded from http://pygs.lyellcollection.org/ by guest on October 1, 2021

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On Lindley Moor, the commissioners in trust of the road from Outlane to E-astrick, have formed their turnpike by the side of the great military way from Eboracum to Mancunium, in order, as it would seem, to avoid the trouble and expense of levelling what remained of the ridge, or of restoring what has been lost, at this point, of the second iter of Antonine. But at another place, as on the north west WatHng-street, * a road which does not appear to have been raised above the groimd anywhere on its passage through this parish, but rather sunk into it, the trustees have changed its direction; and, in the fields adjoining, the Hne, which had been worn hollow by the traffic of ages, or deepened and narrowed by natural agencies, may still be seen of a Kghter tint than the surrounding vegetation, and still retaining to some extent the depression of the original course. In addition to aU this, the obstacles thrown in the way of our inquiry by the Greneral Enclosure Act,t which provides that every kind of road, ''not set out" by the commissioners, is declared to be extinguished; and the spirit of improvement, which in these days animates society at large, but more especially that of the manufacturing districts, would seem to render hopeless the satisfactory elucidation of a subject invested with so much interest. It is true, that in the out-townships of our parish, on their unreclaimed moors, their lofty eleva tions, and in their secluded valleys, much still remains to encourage the inquiry. But the society will allow me to express my regret, on account of the difficulty which attends it now, that so much which might have been weU and effec tually done by abler hands than mine a century ago, has to be taken up and investigated at the present date, under the accumulated drawbacks I have enumerated. Then, as so little aid is to be derived from those local channels of information, to which I would gladly have referred, it • The Ilkley iter. + Geo. 3, c. 102. Downloaded from http://pygs.lyellcollection.org/ by guest on October 1, 2021

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•veill be necessary to seek elsewhere for such data as may be of use in the present inquiry. To do this effectually we must take up entirely independent ground; and, avoiding all inconclusive speculation, deduce from the well known facts of E-omano-British history the materials which the obscurity of our subject requires. By adopting this plan, I trust we shall ultimately arrive at a more satisfactory conclusion than we should were we to adopt the principles on which the inquiry appears to have been hitherto conducted. In their search after the ancient roads through this parish, our local historians seem to have been under the impression that most of the channels of communication between the cities and towns of Brigantia, if ever laid down either by the Aborigines or their Roman conquerors, had been diverted and lost in very early times. One would infer from the imperfect success which attended their search, that the excellent roads which the Saxons found everywhere, in firm condition, throughout the island, were unsuited to their wants, and that either they or succeeding generations incurred the labour and expense not only of enclosing the ancient roads within their pastures, but of forming new ones, more circuitous in their direction, and less durable in their construction ! History is at variance with this theory. But it seems never to have entered into the speculations of our antiquaries that the cities of Brigantia stood, if possible, in greater need of roads between them than the cities of any other province of Britain, or that such roads might actually have been constructed. And they appear never to have entertained the possibility of the ancient pack-horse roads, on which they pursued their archaeological investigations, being entitled to an antiquity beyond that of a few generations, but whose age they were unable to determine. It seems never to have occurred to them that Roman legions might Downloaded from http://pygs.lyellcollection.org/ by guest on October 1, 2021

187 htLve inarched over their enduring pavements and along their direct lines, at the behest of an emperor keeping his court at Eboracum; or that couriers from the seccmd city of £rkain might have sped along them with despatches to the other towns and fortresses of Brigantia ! Hence, as they did not follow the beaten track—the date of whose construction they were imable to show—^they sought for iters where perhaps they had never been made. Let us take a more comprehensive and a deeper view of the question, and go at once to the foundation of the inquiry. Permit me then to recal to your recollection, in as brief a manner as possible, the general state of Britain at the period of Roman dominion. You will remember that it had been reduced to the state of a province; that its inhabitants lived in cities, towns, and villages; that their cities consisted of municipal buildings, temples, baths, and dwelling-houses, all provided with most of the conveniences of modem luxury and refine ment. That the open country was spotted here and there with the villas and mansions of the wealthy Romans, adorned with all the costly embellishments of which Italian archi tecture was capable. These cities, towns, and villages, were connected by a vast and well designed series of roads, military and vicinal. It is unnecessary to enter into proofs of the durable construction of the roads, either laid down or adopted and improved by the Roman conquerors of Britain. It is a fact, in every way confirmed, that such was the case, and that their preservation and supervision were entrusted to men holding high positions imder the government.* On the subjugation of a province, the first attention of the con querors was directed to the roads between the strongholds they had wrested from the defeated tribes ; and it is indispu table, that the more important the province the more complete were these channels of commimication between the cities and garrisons within its borders. • Curator Viarum, or keeper of roads. Downloaded from http://pygs.lyellcollection.org/ by guest on October 1, 2021

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Of this description was the province of Brigantia; and we owe to a Roman general the first knowledge of its in habitants. When Julius Caesar interrogated the Belgae, whom he found on the coast opposite Gaul, near the modern town of Deal, as to the tribes of the interior, he learned that the Brigantes were the most powerful and nimierous; and that from the remoteness of their occupation, their ancestors were believed to have been the spontaneous production of the soil. Prior to the E-oman invasion, they had penetrated to the western shore, and had formed a kingdom consisting of two provinces—Brigantia and Brigantia Proper. This latter division extended from the bounds of the Parisii northward to the Tyne, and from the Hmnber and Don to the mountains of Lancashire, Westmoreland, and Cumberland. Beyond the mountains which separate the counties of York and Lancaster, were located the Yolantii and Sistuntii, two tribes united in compact alliance. The former had spread them selves over the western parts of Lancashire, and the latter the west of Westmoreland and Cumberland, as far as the wall of Severus. The Yolantii owned for their capital Yolanty, the present town of Elenborough, in the latter county, and the Sistuntii Reregonium, the Ribchester of North Lancashire.* It is in the kingdom of Brigantia, including the territories of these subjugated tribes, that we are more immediately interested. And this arises from the fact of the parish of Halifax occupying a large extent of the hilly country on the western confines of Brigantia Proper; and being so situated that several ancient roads, which are supposed to have been laid down between the towns and fortresses which surrounded it, necessarily passed through it. Before entering upon the question of these ancient roads of our parish, it is requisite that we should know something of the places from whence they came and to which they led. • Whitaker's Manchester, vol. i, p. 9. Downloaded from http://pygs.lyellcollection.org/ by guest on October 1, 2021

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We find that on the sites of the British towns and fortresses, which, under the ferocious and woad-stained Brigantes, consisted of wretched hovels and palisaded encampments, there arose cities and towns resembKng in their architectural beauty, their public buildings and villas, those of the vine- clad slopes and valleys of Italy. Recent excavations have brought to light elegancies which equal those of modem jdilettanteism, consisting of the remains of extensive buildings iind baths, of tesselated pavements and mural decorations; of altars which record that some favoured individual had performed his vow dutifully and willingly, and others which had been dedicated to Jupiter, the Greatest and the Best! The most extensive and important city of Brigantia was, of course, Eboracum, the metropolis. It is scarcely necessary to remind you that it had been raised to the privileges of a municipal city; that it was the garrison of the Victorious legion, and that it was honoured by the residence, within its walls, of many emperors. Ample corroboration of all this, and much more, may be found in the pages of Drake and Wellbeloved. Next in importance was the city of Isurium, the Aldborough of the Saxons, situated at an easy stage on the north road from Eboracum. Its former greatness is attested by the extent of its remains and the interesting discoveries which have been recently made there. Drake estimates its walls at a mile and a half in circuit, and the form of the city quadrangular. Before the subjugation of the Brigantes it was the capital of the province, and the royal city of the infamous Cartismandua. To the west of Eboracum, at about the distance of nine miles, according to the Itineraries, was situated the town of Calcaria, which, by the concurrent agreement of antiquaries, has been placed at Tadcaster. To the south of Calcaria, on the "Western Ermine- street, were placed the towns of LegioHum and Danum, the Campodono of Bede. At the distance of thirty-two miles Downloaded from http://pygs.lyellcollection.org/ by guest on October 1, 2021

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from Calcaria, according to the corrected numbers of the Itinerary, was the town of Cambodunum; and at Lindwell, in Grreetland, at about the same distance, and in the line of the former, from Calcaria, was a station, which, in the absence of all knowledge of the remains at Slack, which had not then been brought to light, and with the information of Camden before him, the learned Horsley was induced to fix upon as that of Cambodunum. I shall have occa sion to refer to this part of my subject more fully here after. To the west of Cambodunum, at about the distance of twenty-three miles from it, the learned author of the history of Manchester, on satisfactory data, fixed the site of Mancu- nium on the banls of the Irwell, where the present opulent city of Manchester is situated. To the north of Mancxmium was situate the city of Eeregonium, afterwards called Coccium, a place at which numerous discoyeries of Roman remains have attested its ancient significance. To the east, and about midway between the latter town and Aldborough, was placed the station of Olicana, the present Ilkley, where fixed and heavy Boman remains have been found, and from whence Roman roads diverge. I may also mention the probability of the Coluna of the Bavennas having occupied the site of the town of Colne, in Lancashire. There are visible evidences in its neighbourhood which give strength to the supposition. There was also a station at Adel, near Leeds, where the usual indicia of a Boman population have been found, and which, I perceive, has been suggested as the site of Burgodunum. In this list of the cities and towns of Brigantia, I have confined myself to those which are more immediately con nected with the subject of my paper, and I venture to express a belief that if all other evidence were wanting, the importance alone of the cities I have enumerated would be sufficient to place the question as to roads having existed Downloaded from http://pygs.lyellcollection.org/ by guest on October 1, 2021

191 between them beyond dispute. "We are not, however, entirely left to this kind of evidence. That some of these roads did exist, and that they passed through the parish of Halifax, I shall endeavour to show. By reference to a map of that part of the Eoman province in which the cities that surround this parish are situate, it will be evident that the more direct the lines which may be drawn over the country are from one station to another, the more certainly will they pass through the parish of Halifax.* Nay, so central is its situation between the towns I have enumerated, that any lines drawn from one to another with the intention of avoiding this parish would have to depart widely from the direct route. In the map straight lines may be drawn to represent the supposed roads. One from York to Manchester by Slack, and a branch from it to the same place by Greetland and Littleborough ; one from Aldborough to Manchester ; another from Hkley to Manchester, and one from Ilkley to Slack; and a line also may be drawn from Doncaster to Ribchester, and another from Slack to Colne. It is, then, in the vicinities of these lines that we must look for roads as parallel to them as the irregu larities of the hiUy districts through which they passed would admit, and possessing at the same time claims to antiquity. As I have endeavoured to show the true destina tion and direction of the roads which are supposed to have connected the distant towns of Brigantia, I need not trouble the society with any detailed accoimt of them beyond the boimdaries of this parish, I shall therefore confine my remarks to those portions that are within it, or, at least, as nearly so as possible. The first road on which I shall ask you to accompany me is the one we find in Antonine's second

* This part of the subject was illnstrated by a large map of Brigantia, on which the cities enumerated were distinguished; and direct lines were drawn from one city to another across the districts lying between them. The bound aries of the parish of Halifax were marked in their true geographical position^ and this portion of Erigantia was found to be intersected by every line drawn upon the map. Downloaded from http://pygs.lyellcollection.org/ by guest on October 1, 2021

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account of the iters of Britain. It extends the whole length of the island from east to west. From Eboracum it leads to Calcaria and forward to Leeds, where Thoresby describes a camp at a place called Wall Flat.* From thence the road was continued over the country towards Adwalton. At this point, the late Mr. Leman, a FeUow of the Society of Antiquaries, and said to be a most indefatigable inquirer into the antiquities of this country, suggested the probability of an intermediate station between Tadcaster and Slack, which he believed to have been lost in the copies of the Itirierary which had come down to us. The name is, no doubt, significant of some such station, as the meaning of Adwalton is obviously "at or against the walled town." At about the distance of a mile to the south of this supposed station the road passes to Cleckheaton, where Dr. Richardson actually found the vestigia of a Roman town, and of which Dr. Dimham Whitaker says he gave a distinct and satisfactory account to Mr. Heam. The letter containing the information is published in the first volume of Heam's edition of Leyland's Itinerary, and relates to the discovery of Roman coins in Heaton fields, together with the foundations of buildings. Dr. Whitaker is of opinion that it was a resting place between Calcaria and Cambodunum. To this point we have been conducted in a direct line from Tadcaster, by the authorities I have cited. The road may not be entire the whole distance, but I believe it will be found, for the greatest part, to correspond with the line of the old road from York to Manchester through this country. We have now no alternative but to follow the road in a straight Hne to Outlane. This leads us to Brighouse, where the iter crossed the river by a bridge, which, with the house that stood by, or upon, it in remote times, gave name to the locality. From the river, the road passed through Rastrick, and thence, by Castle Hill, Ridge • Ducatus, p. 104 (1816). Downloaded from http://pygs.lyellcollection.org/ by guest on October 1, 2021

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End, Warren House, and Lindley Moor, to Slack. Passing by the station at this place, the road leads by Outlane and Red Lane Dyke—once, perhaps, paved with Roman bricks, and hence its name,—to Castleshaw, and thence to Manchester, the Mancuniimi of Antonine. These facts seem to point out the true direction of this iter from York to Outlane pretty satisfactorily. For at Rastrick, Roman remains have been found, which it is not necessary I should particularise on the present occasion, and a wayside cross of Saxon workmanship, which gives considerable antiquity to the road on which it was originally placed. At Rastrick, this ancient road branches off, and passes by Elland, Lower Edge, to Brow Bridge and Lin dwell, in Greetland—the spot on which Horsley fixed the site of Cambodunum. The road thence continues along the ridge of Greetland Moor, from whence it commands a fine view of the country towards Stainland and Outlane. Passing onward, it reaches Wall Nook, in this township. There are many Roman encampments and earthworks known by the appellation of "wall;" and whenever the term occurs, in situations reasonably supposed to have been occupied by the Romans, the word may safely be considered a contraction of the Latin "vallum" or "wallum," and indicative of the former existence of entrenchments on the spot distinguished by the name. From Wall Nook, the road leads by Abbot Royd to Bank Cross, where, in the interval between them, several detached portions of an ancient pavement may stiU be observed on the renovated trust; and those, no longer in situ, may be seen in the fences adjoining, hollowed by the tread of many generations. From Bank Cross, the road is continued to Ripponden Bank, and between these places the «auseway still forms an interesting relic of the ancient road. In the Old Bank the pavement is entire. It has a central causeway, set with squared stones, for a carriage track on o Downloaded from http://pygs.lyellcollection.org/ by guest on October 1, 2021

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each side. The preservation of this pavement is accounted for by the construction of a new and circuitous branch of the turnpike trust, by which a more easy descent from Bank Top to Ripponden is secured, and, at the same time, the Old Bank left unmolested. On reaching the opposite side of the river, by a bridge of one arch, the pavement disappears imder the garden wall of the parsonage. Here it has been completely interred under the parsonage grounds, and ob literated by the new Turnpike adjoining. JBut crossing the latter, the same kind of pavement is found remaining in fragments along E-ipponden Old Lane. This ancient way ascends the hill by Swift Cross Spa, and joins the Ilkley and Manchester road at Whitegate Head, where the original curve of the " Old Lane" was, some years siuce, diverted from its original course, for the purpose, it would seem, of enlarging the adjoining paddock. From the highest point of the road a fine view of the surrounding district is obtained. To the west, the height of Monshead bounds the horizon, and to the south, the dark moors of Blackstonedge, shut out the fertile and busy plains of Lancashire. To the east, the eye rests upon the height of Wholestone Moor, which rises above the station of Cambodunum, and northward from this interesting point, the road we have traversed is seen descend ing the hiU on the opposite side of Ripponden Valo^ in a straight line to the Hybume, which flows through the village. It is to be remarked, in respect of this road, that although no existing indicia afford sufficient evidence of Eoman con struction, it is not the less entitled to great antiquity. We have brought it from a spot on which ''fixed and heavy** remains of the Eoman times have been found indicative of a Eoman population formerly existing there—over the high ground of the country, in a very direct course, to its point of junction with a Eoman road of undisputed authenticity, namely, that portion of the North West "Watling-street from Downloaded from http://pygs.lyellcollection.org/ by guest on October 1, 2021

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Ilkley to Manchester, which passes through the township of Soyland. Entering this iter, which, like the Greetland road, is still for the most part in use, it reaches Baitings Gate, where Warburton, in his map of Roman Yorkshire, marks a camp. From this point, the road continues along tlie modern highway till it enters Black Castle Clough, where, ascending the Devil's Causeway, it crosses the heights of Blackstonedge; and, entering the county of Lancaster, descends to Littleborough, where Roman remains have been found, and where Mr. Whitaker, of Manchester, fixes a station. I have spoken of the great military way from York to Manchester by Slack and Castleshaw, and its branch to Greetland and Littleborough, as, for the most part, at present existing. I have done so, for in addition to the weight of evidence before me I have not been able to bring myself to believe that those direct and durable iters, which were either laid down or improved bj^ the greatest road-makers of antiquity, have been wholly abandoned; more especially as the places to which they led have retained, for the most part, their populations to the present day. I have sought for proofs of the antiquity of the roads which lay nearest the straight lines, drawn on an accurate map, from station to station, and I have hitherto been successful in my search. There are roads through this parish which have claims to a remote antiquity. The names which still cling to them; their ancient pavements, and the discovery along their course of earthworks, tumuli, and coins; as well as of other vestiges of the British and Roman teras, attest their age. It is on such evidences as these that many ancient roads, which pass through our parish, are believed to be of Roman adoption or construction. It ought not, however, to be concealed that our venerable historian, Watson, held a different opinion, and adopted a different course, with regard to the iter from York to Manchester by o2 Downloaded from http://pygs.lyellcollection.org/ by guest on October 1, 2021

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Outlane. He corrects Whitaker, of Manchester, for asserting that the camp at KirMees lies about a mile to the south of the Roman way (Whitaker woidd have been nearer the mark had he said two). Watson confidently assures us that "it is a great mistake to say that this station Kes about a mile to the south of the Koman way, for this may possibly lead some antiquarian to seek for it where he will never find it, &c." He traced the road from Manchester to Lindley Moor, and, after losing it in the enclosures there, he states that he can with certainty say that to the north of Kirklees, even as far as Leeds, he could neither meet with the trace of it nor any tradition, relating to it, though " he repeatedly searched for it with the utmost care; taking the greatest pains in the affair on accoimt of what Dr. Richardson had said in his letter to Hearn, &c." He doubts the Roman character of the camp at Wall Flat; and evidently sees nothing important in the Roman vestigia at Cleckheaton. " In a word," he says, " the Roman way from Manchester to York seems to have kept the Calder on its left tiU it crossed it about a mile below Dewsbury, and falling in with the present turnpike road, follows the course of it to Wakefield, having all or most part of the way the name of street; it is known again by the same name about half way between Wakefield and Pontefract; after which it joins the great military way between Honcaster and York."* If our worthy historian's iter had fallen into a turnpike road, having some claim to the character of a long beaten track, and pointing direct to York instead of Doncaster, these facts would not have been without their importance. But I fear his object was rather to write down the only two places between Slack and Tadcaster, which might dispute with him his site of Cambodunum, than to trace, in its obvious direction, this military way of Antonine. Hence he would not allow hia • Watson, p. 39, 40. Downloaded from http://pygs.lyellcollection.org/ by guest on October 1, 2021

197 road to cross the Calder at Brighouse, but he took it down the right bank of the river until it was fairly out of the way either of Kirkleea or Cleckheaton, and turning it several miles out of its direct course, he connected it with an ancient road from JDoncaster to Mibchester I I have taken up, I fear, too much of your valuable time, and trenched too long on your kind attention, by my remarks on these two roads. But you will, I think, agree with me that they are of greater im portance than any others passing through this parish can be, from the circmnstance of their having upon them two places contending for the site of Cambodunmn. And this is more especially the case as the claim of Slack to be considered the site of this station, an opinion so long held by the com mon consent of antiquaries, has been called in question by no less a personage than the learned, urbane, and accomplished historian, the late Rev. Joseph Hunter, of the Record Office. To his opinion may be added that of the learned Horsley, and it will be admitted that their united testimony is entitled to great weight. But other opinions have been maintained on this subject. Camden, Burton, Gale, and Warburton, believed Almondbury to be the site ; while the author of the history of Manchester, our own Watson, Dr. Dunham Whitaker, and others, contend for the site of Slack, in the parish of Huddersfield. That Camden committed an error in placing Cambodunum at Almondbury is evident, from the fact of Castle Hill being out of the direct route, and of nothing Roman ever having been found there. If Camden had drawn a straight line on his map between York and Manchester, and had been guided by it in his search through the West Riding of Yorkshire, he might have anticipated the sub sequent discoveries at Slack. He surely would have heard on the spot, in the reign of Elizabeth, the tradition of a great town once having been there, which Whitaker and Watson heard in the reign of the second George! But, Downloaded from http://pygs.lyellcollection.org/ by guest on October 1, 2021

198 in the absence of all knowledge of the remains either at this place or at Greetland, he gave the weight of his name to the opinion that xllmondbury was the site of Cambodunum. ThiiS was published in the editions of his great work, issued previous to the year 1600. But in the August of 1599, when on a visit to Sir John Savile, he saw, at Bradley Hall, the celebrated altar which has caused so much controversy, and which had been disinterred about two years before at Thick HoUins, near Linwell, in the township of Greetland. Yet, with this very important discovery before him, Camden did not see sufficient reason to express a difierent opinion re specting the site of Cambodunum in the next edition of his Britannia, which contained an account of the Greetland remains. On the contrary, he maintained the position he had taken, and his judgment led others, equally competent, to the same conclusion. But the profound and accurate Horsley observing that Greetland lay in the direct line from Tadcaster to Manchester, applied to this spot the principles on which he jrarsued his search after the materials for his Britannia Romana. " That the discovery of fixed and heavy remains of the Homan times, such as all altars are, afibrds a presumption that there has been a Roman population at or near the place where they are found." In addition, aided by his admirable judgment, he observed that the lingula of land near Linwell, and at the junction of the Calder, with its tributary Blackbrook, corresponded with the situations usually selected by the Roman engineers for the erection of their camps. And his superior judgment is shown by the fact that, at the time he made his observation, he did not know that the Greetland remains had been found on the spot which had attracted his attention. The exact point where the remains were disinterred has been brought to light in a curious note discovered by Mr. Hunter, in a MS. vol., relating to the affairs of the manor Downloaded from http://pygs.lyellcollection.org/ by guest on October 1, 2021

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of Wakefield, which he found in the Bodleian. The note states:—" That in the latter end of the month of April, An. Dom. 1597, Anno EHzabethse ReginoG 39, one Thomas Miles, a labouring man, and John Hallywell, digging upon a lawe of stones at the back of the house of Jeffery Ramsden, at the Thick Hollins, did light upon a stone squared, in length about a yard, having Roman characters, on two sides, engraven, and being plain on the other two sides, having partizans or crests at the top ap.d at the bottom, with some flourishes ; which stone had four holes at the top, whereunto it should seem some other thing had been fastened, and the foot thereof had stood upon a square stone wrought with partizans, &c. The characters contained five lines on one side, and but two on the other, and were very difficult to read. There was also found in the said lawes, and in other places thereabouts, divers foundations of houses, and some Roman coins, and squared stones and thick stones, with iron nails, in the earth, in divers places of the ground, called ThickhoUins, lying upon the height near the Clay House, near xmto Linwell." A drawing of the Altar, which accompanies this accoimt, identifies it with the one described by Camden. An accoimt and engraving of this altar will also be foimd in Watson. The inscription is to the efiect that it was " Dedicated by Titus Aurelius Aurelianus to the God of the states of the Brigantes, and to the Deities of the Emperor, on behalf of himself and his, in grateful remembrance of the success of their undertaking." The altar was erected at the beginning of the third century, about the time of the expedition of Severus and his sons, Antoninus Caracalla, and Septimius Geta, against the Caledonians. Horsley, with the statement of Camden before him, and in the then state of information on the subject, was justified in fixing the site of Cambodunum at Thick Hollins. And Downloaded from http://pygs.lyellcollection.org/ by guest on October 1, 2021

200 although he admits that the usual indicia of a station, in fortifications, tumuli, and foundations are wanting, the discovery of the additional information by Mr. Hunter, furnishes ample proof of the existence of a Roman population at Thick HoUins, However, with the candour which every where distinguishes his admirable writings, I feel persuaded, that had he been aware of the important remains at Slack, which had not then been brought to light, his name woidd not have been identified with the Cambodunum o£ Gfreetland. He had evidently sought elsewhere, but on the same iter, for a better site than Thick HoUins, in Greetland, afforded, and he appears to have employed one of his correspondents, Mr. Angier, of Heton, to continue the s'earch, who says, " I have made another attempt to discover a station about Greetland or Ribanden, but without success." " Mr. Camden, indeed, gives us an account of a votive altar found there, but says nothing of the whereabouts, and it is too long since to expect any information from the inhabitants." The Britannia Romana was published in 1732, and at that date the learned author was dead. He had been aware that the site of one of the ten cities of Britain, which had been placed under the Latian law, would have left more important traces of its existence than Thick Hollins afforded. All that had been found there, as we have seen, were an altar and some founda tions of buildings. This event happened near three centuries ago, and the lingula in Greetland has since then been barren of interest. Let us inquire into the claims of Slack. In the year 1750, Watson chanced to meet with an unknown altar in a farmer's yard in the township of Stainland. He was conducted to the spot where it was found. It was at Slack, in the town ship of Longwood, in the parish of Huddersfield ; and the inscription upon it indicated that Caius Antonius Modcstus, centurion of the sixth victorious, pious, and Downloaded from http://pygs.lyellcollection.org/ by guest on October 1, 2021

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faithful legion, consecrated it to Fortune, and thus dis charged his vow faithfully and willingly—"votum solvit lubens merito."* The altar had been discovered on the western side o£ a building, which proved to be a hypocaust. The remains were found within what proved to be the pre cincts of a Eoman station. Wliitaker, in his history of Manchester, estimates the four closes which constitute the Eald, or Old Fields, at twelve or fourteen acres. He also relates that there " had been pieces of thick glass, urns, bones, and slips of copper, and crowded foundations of buildings, discovered, some a yard in thickness, and all composed of strong stone and cement." He also states that " two fields had been cleared, but the other two remained entirely filled up with them." And he says that " the farmers had frequently broken their ploughs in all." He also gives his testimony to the fact that this quarry of Roman remains is placed upon the course of the miKtary way from Man chester to York. He says again that " a great quantity of Roman bricks had been discovered in the foundations, some long and some square, and all of a beautiful red. The latter were frequently twenty-two inches in the square, and found in the floorings of the houses; as in some was dug up a thick crust of brick, rudely scored in squares, in imitation of tesselated work, and in others a pavement composed of pounded brick and very white mortar. Near the eastern side of the area, where three stone ledges and three lordships now meet, and whence a long line of houses appears, from the discovered foundations, to have extended towards the north, were lately found three coins of brass,—" two were lost," the third he describes. There were also discovered two inscriptions—one "REBURRHUI," and the other " OPUS."t

• This centurion was, no doubt, in command of a detachment of the sixth legion at Camhodunum. + Whitakcr, pp. 12B, 129. Downloaded from http://pygs.lyellcollection.org/ by guest on October 1, 2021

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"Watson, at p. 42 of bis history, gives further particulars of these remains. He says that a room in the building, previously referred to, was four yards long, and about two and a half broad, but between three and four yards below the surface of the ground, paved near a yard thick, with lime and bricks, brayed together extremely hard. In one corner of this room was a drain about five inches square. This would seem to have been a bath. He further adds that at " about sixty or seventy yards from this old building, called the Croft, by the irregularity of the ground, there seemed to have been a large erection, perhaps a fort; and that the people there had a tradition that formerly there was a great town in what are called the Eald Fields." I once possessed an iron lattice, which had been found amongst a quantity of Roman bricks and rubbish, discovered in digging in the Eald Fields. This relic, I regret to say, is irretrievably lost. On one occasion, I observed, walled into the end of a bam, a stone, much decayed, bearing the fragment of an inscription; it had formed a portion of some word in which the letters CIYCAN had occurred, but on whose meaning it would be useless to speculate. Large quantities of Roman tiles have also been found at Slack, many bearing the well known inscription "Cohors quarta Bretonum."* The Halifax museum possesses one fine specimen and several broken fragments. "Watson suggests that the fourth Cohort was stationed at Slack, and that as bricks, bearing the same inscription, had been found in the time of Camden, at Grimscar, which is about three miles from the station, the garrison went there to make bricks. It is far more likely that in Grimscar wood there was a country place of entertainment, patronised by the

• A Cohort was a body of about 500 soldiers among the Romans. The one commemorated in these bricks was the 4th regiment of Britain, or of Britons. Downloaded from http://pygs.lyellcollection.org/ by guest on October 1, 2021

203 Roman inhabitants and soldiers of Cambodunum. When Camden visited Grimscar, he foimd there not the remains of a brick kiln, but those of a hypocaust, which denote the existence of baths, and these involve the necessity of other buildings adjoining. With regard to the hypocaust discovered at Slack, and minutely described by Whitaker,* I am not quite sure whether it was the identical one removed from Cambodunum, some years since, to the groimds of the late Mr. Allen, of Greenhill, near Huddersfield. This hypocaust was said to have been a new discovery about thirty years since; but the one alluded to by Whitaker and Watson was exposed to light 80 or 90 years before. The Remain in the grounds at Greenhill is surrounded by trees and protected by an arch of stone. It had long been a custom at iSlack to dig for fence stones among the foundations of the buildings which existed below the surface, and it was on one of these occasions that the ruins of an erection, composed chiefly of Roman bricks, were discovered. These remains consisted of a hypocaust, with the floor and portions of the walls of a Caldarium or sweating-room. The roof of the hypocaust is composed of sandstone flags, measuring 1 foot, 9 inches square, and resting on dwarf piers of Roman brick and mortar, varying from 6 to 8 inches square. These piers are 1 foot 9 inches high, and vary from 12 to 14 inches apart. The room measured twelve feet long by eleven broad, and had been surrounded by vertical hot air tubes, about 4| by 3| inches in diameter, composed of baked clay, which communicated with the hypocaust below. Many of these tubes remain in their original position. The floor of the Caldarium is one foot in thickness, and is formed of thick tiles about the size of the flags on which they are cemented. Upon this floor a layer of mortar and pounded bricks • Hist, of Manchester, p. 130. Downloaded from http://pygs.lyellcollection.org/ by guest on October 1, 2021

204 has been run, when in a liquid state, to about the thick ness of four inches. The floor thus formed, where it ia perfect, which is the case at both ends of the apartment, is coarse and uneven, possessing no marks of ever having been covered with a tesselated or mosaic pavement. 'NOT do the wall flues appear ever to have been finished with stucco. This hypocaust has either belonged to one of the commonest hind of thermal edifice, or was in an unfinished state at the time of its destruction. At the south west and north east angles of the remain, and on a level with the floor, are two large fragments of sandstone grit, which appear, from their peculiar form, to have been portions of the baths adjoining the hypocaust. However this may be, one of these fragments is furnished with a channel to carry off an overflow of water from the bath or cistern, of which it formed part. On the discovery of this remain, the subsequent excava tions were conducted under the personal superintendence of Mr. AUen, who was accompanied by a practical engineer; but the injury done to the fences and land, by the immense con course of people, who collected from every quarter, soon put an end to all further operations. Much, however, remains to be done; and I feel persuaded that if a systematic exploration of the Eald Fields were made, important results would follow. My account of the earthworks and tumuli, which surround the station at Slack, would extend my paper beyond all reasonable bounds were I to introduce it on the present occasion. I have been induced to devote more attention to this part of my subject than I should otherwise have done, had not the obsolete claim of Q-reetland, to the site of Cambodunum, been revived by the late Mr. Hunter, in the communication to the Society of Antiquaries, to which I have previously alluded. Greetland, in the presence of Slack, I beg to submit, can have no such pretension; and we can only suppose that the amiable heart of Hunter, filled Downloaded from http://pygs.lyellcollection.org/ by guest on October 1, 2021

205 with admiration for the exalted qualities of Horsley, induced the learned historian of the Deanery of Doncaster, on the discovery of the note in the Bodleian, to espouse the forgotten cause of Greetland, which was also the cause of the ohject of his veneration ! Society will thank Mr. Hunter for his valuable contribution; his discovery shows, in this particular point, the veracity of Camden ; it illustrates the judgment of Horsley; and proves the existence of a Roman town within the parish of Halifax. Slack will continue to be the site of Cambodunum ; and, this being the case, we have, at Greetland, a station without a name. But it is a singular coincidence that, in Brigantia, we have a town without an ascertained site. E-ichard, of Cirencester, mentions it under the name of Galacum or Galgacum, and Kendal has, on no decisive authority, been suggested as the site. With the superior claims of Greetland, and the somewhat similar sound of its name, I see no present reason why the station there should not henceforth be recognised as the Galacum of Eicardus Coriensis.*

Mr. W. S. WARD read the following communication:— ON THE ROTATION OF THE PLANETS. BY CAPTAIN A. DRAVSON, ROYAL ARTILLERY, PROFESSOR OF ASTRONOMY, IN THE OBSERVATORY, WOOLWICH. There are in the solar system at least seven primary planets which " Rotate" or turn round an axis. These planets vary considerably in size and in their distance from the sun, and there appears to be no law in connection with • As I find it impossible, within the compass of one paper, to do that justice to the subject which I think it deserves; or to compress, without losing its force, the mass of materials on the Roman aifairs of our neighbour hood, which I have been for years collecting, and am collecting still; I shall be under the necessity of deferring, to a future opportunity, the continuation of this interesting inquiry.