THE PROVINCIAL HISTORY OF ENGLAND.
LXXXVIII. — CENTRAL ENGLAND : STAFFORDSHIRE AND
DERBYSHIRE :—CELTIC AND ROMAN PERIODS.
STAFFORDSHIRE lies within the territories of the Celtic tribes whom the Romans called the Cornavii or Cornabii. "Early British remains are tolerably numerous, and much has been done to elucidate them. In the neighbourhood of Wetton no less than twenty-three barrows were opened, two-thirds of which appeared to belong to the early Stone period. Some of them contained human bones, generally calcined, together with vessels, urns, stags' horns, fibula, &c. The Boroughs near Wetton seems to have been an important British village, containing traces of the round pits generally seen in those localities, and yielding remains of celts, stone hammers, and human bones. On the floor of Thor's Cave were many articles of the later Celtic period, such as bronze articles, fibula and rings, implements of iron, perforated pins, and tools of bone, and some pottery of Samian ware. Several British ornaments, such as torques, have been also found, one in Needwood Forest.. Amongst the most interesting barrows opened in Staffordshire are Saxon Low and Bury Bank, near Tittensor ; Moat, in Ribden, at the foot of Weyer, and Mayfield, and a great number in the parishes of Wetton, Calton, Astenefield, Stanton, Waterfall, and 11am. In fact, the whole of the moorland grit and limestone district is covered with barrows and burial-places of more or less size, evincing the former presence of a large and hardy population." There is the usual difficulty in distinguishing between the remains of British, Roman, and Saxon camps, many of which were probably used in succession by each of these races. One of these so-called Celtic, but possibly later camps, is that of Castle Old Ford, or Old Fort, near Stonall, about four miles south from Lichfield ; and there are several other camps in the neighbourhood of Wall, the site of a Roman station, at Bemdescot Park, near Rugeley, on Abbot's Castle Hill, on the Shropshire border, between Wolverhampton and Bridgenortb, and at Barr Beacon, near Walsall.
The Roman conquest led to the incorporation of Staffordshire in the Province of Flavia Ciesariensis. Two or three of the greater Roman roads traversed this county. The road which was afterwards called Wailing Street (identified with one of the hinera which have been preserved to us) entered the county from Warwickshire, at Fazeley, near Taroworth, and ran west northwest, a little to the south of Channock Chase and Penkridge, into Shropshire. " The turnpike road from London to Shrewsbury falls in with Watling Street on Channock Chase, and coincides with it during the remainder of its course through this county." The first station on this road, as we have already had occasion to mention, was what is now called Wall, the ETOCETUM of the ]ter, two to three miles south south-west from Lichfield. It is now " a village, with a pretty church, charmingly situated upon a ridge
of wooded hill." A few foundations of the Roman station are still visible. " Coins of the reigns of Nero and Domitian, as well
as portions of Roman pavement, have been dug up here, and bricks, tiles, and pottery may be frequently found on the road. A trench, dug northwards through the foundations of the wall from which
the place is named, and which formerly, in the memory of the inhabitants, existed breast-high, brought to light the base of a square apartment, with walls of strong masonry, and a floor of plaster, laid on extremely hard concrete. The apartment had been plastered and coloured in red, green, yellow, and white, with well made stripes. The names, too, of surrounding places are suggestive, such as Chesterfield, Foss-way, Offiow, Street-way,
&c." The exact site of the next station on this roadway in its course through Staffordshire, given in the her as PENNOCRUCIUM, cannot be identified. It must, however, frotn an estimate of the distance from ETOCETUM, as given in the lter, have been somewhere near the spot where the road from Wolverhampton meets the Watling Street, near the present "Spread Eagle" station, on the railway from Wolverhampton to Stafford. Two miles off is the village of Street, or Stretton, and 3i miles the small town of Penkridge (between the Peek and the Stafford and Worcester Canal), which names between them preserve the tradition of the former existence of the Roman station and roadway. At ETOCF.TUM another Roman roadway seems to have met the Watling Street. This, which some call the /kenitd, but others prefer to call the Rykeneld Street, entering from Warwickshire by Perry-barr Common and Sutton-Coldfield Park, passed to ETOCETUM (Wall), and thence in a north-easterly direction (parallel to the present railway from Lichfield) to near Burton-on-Trent, whence it passed into Derbyshire. A third Roman roadway (called by some the Via Devena) has been traced as passing the Trent somewhere near Burton or Bramston, and by Uttoxeter, through the pottery district, into Cheshire. According to some antiquaries, we have it Chesterton, a mile and a half north-west of Newcastle-under-Lyme, the site of the Roman station of MEDIOLANUM, from which (if this be correct) a roadway must have run into Shropshire, to Wroxeter (UnIcost um), which was thus brought into more direct communication with Chester (DEvA) through this branch of the Via Derena. There was a strong castle at Chesterton in Norman times.
Derbyshire was, in the Celtic period, included within the territories of the people called by the Romans Coritatei. The burial tumuli or lows (as they are locally called) of this race abound in Derbyshire beyond other counties, and may still be seen "crowning many a high ground." " They are generally of a simple character, enclosing a stone vault, chamber, or chest," generally constructed by four or more large stones being placed on one end, and covered in with a fifth stone of greater size. When these were denuded of the earth which in most cases originally covered them, they were very conspicuous objects, and as such used formerly to be considered as Druidical altars." " They are not always, however, so simple in their construction ; the one at Five Wells, near Taddington, being built with galleries leading to the principal chamber." The circles of atones—which probably most of them were the remains of similar burial mounds—are also found in considerable numbers in Derbyshire. The most remarkable is the stone circle at Arbelow or Arbor-low, five or six miles north-west of the town of Winster. "An elliptical area of 52 yards by 46 (having the greater diameter in a direction north and south) is enclosed by a ditch 6 yards broad, and an outer bank formed of the soil thrown out from the ditch, 5 yards high on the inside. About 30 rough unhewn stones, about 6 to 8 feet long by 3 feet broad, and one foot thick, lie irregularly round the inclosure, having their smaller ends pointing towards the centre ; there is reason to think these once stood obliquely on one end. About 14 smaller stones are intermingled with these in an irregular manner, and there are two stones lying near the centre, one of which is larger than any other within the area. Near this circle are some tumuli, one of which is of large size," and there can be little doubt
that this circle of stones was once covered with earth in a similar manner. There are also stone circles on Eytou moor, the Nine Ladies' circle on Stanton moor, &c. There are some rude military earthworks, which apparently belong to the same period, and one of which, at Staddon, have been afterwards used by the garrison of the subsequent Roman station in the neighbourhood.
The Roman occupation included Derbyshire within the Province of Flavia Cxsariensis, and its mineral resources could not fail to attract the attention of the conquerors. Pigs of lead, with the inscription, " Socio Roman," have been found near Matlock. We shall not therefore be surprised at finding that the county was tra versed by several Roman roadways, though the Antonine Itinerary fails to give us any assistance in identifying the names of the stations, none of the itinera included in it passing through Derby shire. The remains, however, of Roman roadways are plainly discernible in many parts of the county, and some secondary authorities supply us with names which may possibly be the correct ones. The great roadway, which some call Rykeneld Street, enters Derbyshire from Staffordshire by crossing the Dove at Monksbridge, " and its crest is visible over Egginton Heath, though much obliterated by the modern turnpike road, which continues in its line as far as Little Over ; where, a little before it reaches the ten-mile stone, the Roman road keeps its north north
east direction, while the present one turns to the east towards Derby. The old road, though not easily to be distinguished in the cultivation so general near a populous town, crossed Nun's Green, and proceeded down Darley-slade to the banks of the Dement, passing that river by a bridge, the piers of which (it is said) may still be felt in a dry summer, to a station at Little Chester." The name DERVENTIO, as applied to this station, rests on no real authority, the Derventio of the Antonine Itinerary being near EBURACUM (York), and that of the Notitia imperil (in the beginning of the fifth century), and the Derbentio of the Ravenna geographer (in the seventh century), not being necessarily identical with this site. Still it is not unlikely that the Roman station here also takes its name from the river, " the station on the Dwr (the Celtic Dior, water). Here Roman coins have been occasionally dug up, but nothing remains of the foundations of the station, and the ridge of the road near the village of Little Chester has been long destroyed by the plough ; " but on passing Breadsall priory on the left, and rising up towards the almshouses on Morley moor," according to the Bishop of Cloyne (in Lysons' Magna Britannia, A.D. 1817), "a large fragment of it is" (or was) " visible on the right hand," and from this point it has been traced more or less distinctly, and with occasional intermissions, to South Wingfield, and thence "to Egstow (where is a large barrow), and over a part of Topton Moor ; and in an old survey of Egstow farm, belonging to the Henloke family, it is expressly described under the name of the RignalStreet. From this point (which is about twenty miles from Derby) it is no longer visible, but it points when last seen directly for the middle of Sir Henry Henloke's avenue (1817), and probably went from hence to Tupton Hill, near Chesterfield, which is in the same line, only three miles further, and where several Roman coins have been found." Antiquarians have identified this station with the LUTUDARUM of the Ravenna geographer, but this rests on little better than conjecture, and the fact of the contractions rut. and Ludud. forming part of the inscriptions on the pigs of lead found near Matlock. A second Roman road probably ran from Little Chester "to the north-west to Buxton—supposed to have been the Acturs of the Ravenna geographer—and thence continued in the same direction to MANCUNIUM (Manchester), and DEvA (Chester). Traces of it are plainly discernible in the old turn pike road between Hartington and Buxton." " There is no doubt that the springs were known to the Romans, as at the time of the building of the Crescent remains of a Roman bath were discovered." " Another cross-road intersected this at Buxton in its course from Congleton to the Roman camp at Brough, which in the interval between Buxton and Brough is called the Balkan? Gate, and is easily traced across the moors at the back of Tideswell." The camp at Brough is a rectangular one, " in the angle formed by the junction of the Bradwell brook with the Noe," in Hopedale, near Castleton, in the Peak district. The camp is 310 feet by 270 feet, three of the sides being still nearly perfect. " Only one or two coins have been found here, but urns, bricks, stone columns, foundations,—one of a temple or other large building, and a tile with the remains of an inscription " COH "—have been discovered." Another road ran from the Brough camp in a northwesterly direction to a station near Glossop—in the north-west part of the Peak, near Cheshire—and this road is still called the Doctor's Gate. The name given to this station by the country people is Melandra Castle, and the area of it is called the Castle Yard, and eleven fields adjoining to it are named in old deeds the Castle Carrs. "It is nearly square, 122 yards by 112 yards, and situated, like that at Brough, at the meeting of two mountain brooks. The rampaits and part of the ditch still remain, and the four entrances, as well as the site of the prietorium, may be discovered. Foundations of many buildings are on the sides sloping to the water. A stone, too, has been dug up, bearing an inscription which makes mention of a centurion of a Frisian cohort, the same body of troops which constituted the Roman garrison at Manchester, to which therefore this fort was probably an outpost."
Another road forms an arm of that which, as we have seen, led from the Trent (near Burton) to the Potteries and Chesterton. It seems to have branched off from the roadway between Uttoxeter and Newcastle, at Uppear Team "crossed the Dove a little below Rocester, which from its name and situation was probably a station on it, and probably crossed the Ashbourne Road to Derby, at right angles, between the second and third milestones, in a direct line for the gates of Little Chester. It is known through the county by the name of the Long Lane. After entering Little Chester, it issues from the present main street of the village by what was probably the
east gate of the station, and proceeds in its old line, leaving Chaddesden Chase on the right, through Stanton into Nottinghamshire."
In addition to these Roman remains are the camp on Comb's Moss, and the Roosdyche,—i.e., Rhedagna, near Whalley. Roman relics are not on the whole plentiful in Derbyshire, the most remarkable being an altar preserved at Haddon Hall, and a silver plate found in Risley Park.
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