Some of my old notes on Melandra Castle in Glossop...

A compiled history of Melandra Compiled and Edited by Robert J Nudds Illustrations and additional research Mike Brown Forward By the editor: The chance to work on the history of Melandra castle was one that presented itself to me through luck but it is one that I am very pleased to have taken advantage of. The main aim of this compilation is to provide a single comprehensive referencing point for all the work ever undertaken on the site of Melandra Castle in Gamesley, Glossop. As an addition I hope that my own interpretation of the data in front of me is fresh and insightful and I intend to pose questions for the future that hopefully will one day be addressed by someone who has the time and dedication to explore this topic further. On mentioning dedication I am reminded of Mike Brown, the man who has made the production of this compilation possible not only through his willingness to help the editor but also in his lifelong commitment to the site of Melandra; a toil that has spanned five decades and left him with a plethora of paraphernalia pertaining to Melandra and its surrounding buildings. I must apologise if at times it seems that I have “dumbed down” any of the information provided; this is a deliberate attempt at making this anthology more accessible, readable and enjoyable. I should point out that this book is not a comprehensive source for all the finds from Melandra and it neglects to include the laborious dig reports, which altered only marginally on a year-to-year basis. What it does include though is a thematic history of the site and even that of the digs whose specifics have been omitted. Having finished this book you will possess a thorough knowledge of the site of Melandra and the work undertaken so far that has led us to the understandings in this publication. Inclusion of all the written works finds and reports would complicate this volume to the point where it would be of little use and just a catalogue of events. If you wish to analyse finds from a certain year, staff at the Glossop Heritage Centre would be happy to help with enquiries if it is possible. The wealth of information presented to me by Mr Mike Brown, was immense and despite the enormity of the task every effort has been made on my part to include everything that I see to be relevant and integral to not only the understanding of the location in a categorical sense but also in the character of the site and those who have given up their lives attempting to preserve this fascinating slice of history for us all. The book is structured into nine sections:: Section one: A brief history of the site Section two: The fort itself Section three: The bathhouse Section four: A chronological history of the excavation summaries Section five: Melandra in the media Section six: Further insight to the Brigantes Section seven: Summary of information as of 2006 Section eight: Conclusion and future study Section nine: Additional images There is also a website available which contains a copy of the work for computer referencing and a complete chronological list, which organises the record of events on a purely year to year basis, ignorant of the sub-categories of ‘bathhouse’ or ‘castle’, for those interested in only the events of a certain year. The website can be found at: www.geocities.com/history_of_melandra A brief history of the site We know now that the first occupation of the Melandra castle site began sometime around 79/80 AD and continued up until 140 AD. Despite the relatively short occupation time, Melandra was an important site in the context of northwest England during the Roman Empire. So prolific was the Roman influence on the British that after three or four generations, the inhabitants of England regarded themselves as Roman. Melandra provides an insight into the changing practices of the expanding Roman Empire towards its latter days of dominance. This far fling corner of a Common Market, which stretched beyond the continent of Europe, still harked back to the administrative conformance of Rome regardless of its geographical displacement. The word Melandra derives from the Greek word Melandryon, which means ‘a herb among corn, with a white flower’. One thing is certain: Melandra was not the name the Romans used for the fort (despite the word we use (Melandra) being a Romanisation of the Greek). Unfortunately, no written record of the fort’s name exists but it is likely that it was named after the nearby River Etherow, as this would be consistent with Roman practices of the time. From this assumption, suggestions such Edrotalia, Ardotalia and Zerdotalia have arisen with the former being the most likely and commonly used to refer to the site. For the sake of standardising the terms used in this book I will refer to the site as Melandra so not to confuse the reader, however, I urge you to remember the context in which I use this name and be mindful of the fact that during the periods we are referring to, it was known as something else. Before I delve into the history of Melandra’s ontogeny a brief summary of how the Romans came to be in northwest England is required in order to paint a fuller picture of the site in context: The Romans Arrive The expeditions to Britain by Julius Caesar in 55 and 54 BC were more to explore than seriously attempt the annexation of Britain to the expanding Roman Empire. Before he left Britain, Caesar made treaty arrangements with several of the leading native rulers, in the hope of discouraging them from raiding the coast of Roman Gaul. Military expeditions were expensive in manpower and money the Romans found no pressing cause to interfere in British affairs again for almost 100 years. Instead, the Emperor Augustus and his successors endeavoured to keep Britain friendly by diplomatic means. In the years after Caesar’s expeditions there were political developments among the scattered native kingdoms in south Britain which resulted in the rise of a group of powerful kings controlling tribal confederacies. The technology and the art of the tribes were highly sophisticated, and they minted their own gold and silver coinage for commercial transactions. The Brigantes (see chapter six for more information) The seat of power was in the corn-growing lands of southern Britain. In the North of Britain, the ‘kingdom of the Brigantes’ covered most of the modern day counties of Lancashire, Yorkshire, Durham, Cumberland, Northumberland and Derbyshire. The basis of Brigantian wealth was the husbandry of cattle, sheep and horses, as they had no coinage to speak of. The lack of a standardised monetary system can most likely be attributed to the fact that despite being the largest tribe known in pre-Roman Britain, their population was scattered thinly over a very wide area with no central administrative complex. Each valley supported its own community, and it was a difficult task for the tribal ruler to keep a grip on all corners of his ‘kingdom’. The Iron Age hill-forts of Derbyshire and Cheshire give us some idea of where the main population centres may have been; for in times of danger the local people took refuge in their own hilltop forts, massively defended with ramparts and ditches. A group of hill-forts crowns the central ridge of Cheshire, but there is none in south Lancashire between the Mersey and the Ribble. Mam Tor near Edale is perhaps the best-known Derbyshire hill-fort. The Invasion of Claudius The Emperor Claudius launched the main - and ultimately successful – invasion of Britain in A.D. 43. Although Claudius was nominally in charge, an experienced general, Aulus Plautius, who brought with him four legions and numerous auxiliary regiments, commanded the expeditionary forces. The channel crossing and initial landing in Kent presented few problems for Plautius and his men as the general had profited from Gallic traders knowledge of the country and its coastline. Opposition from the British was fierce but short-lived, and soon the British capital of Camulodunum (Colchester), was in Roman hands. Not all the British rulers were anti-Roman; their domestic squabbles led them to form pro and anti-Roman factions. The best-known pro-Roman kingdom was that of Cogidumnus, king of the region around Chichester. The splendid Roman villa at Fishbourne may have been his home. During this period the ruler of the Brigantes, Queen Cartismandua, allied herself with Rome. Her kingdom was in no danger of being taken over at that stage as initially the Romans were only interested in annexing southeastern England. The alliance also suited Claudius: having a pro-Roman kingdom on his northern flank could do him no harm. However, the Brigantes (many of whom were fiercely anti-Roman) assumed that their Queen’s declaration of allegiance would at least save them from Roman domination and allow the Brigantian people to continue life in the peaceful fashion they were used to, unfortunately, they were wrong. The growing unrest amongst the anti-Roman Brigantes came to its first head in A.D. 48, when the Romans were operating in Cheshire. Three years after this altercation Queen Cartismandua handed over the British guerrilla leader Caratacus to the Roman authorities, an act which once again, brought the tensions of the ruling party of Brigantia to the surface. Cartismandua quarrelled with her consort Venutius, who attempted a coup against her, but she was saved by Roman troops and restored to her throne. Venutius however, did not give up and in A.D. 69, so successful a revolt was raised that all the Roman forces could do was to extricate Cartismandua herself from danger. That was the end of her ‘client’ kingdom. Meanwhile in southern and central Britain, the Romans consolidated their hold with garrison forts and later a network of roads, linking more permanent fortifications. They were unable, however, to find an easily defensible line for their northern frontier and so pressed forward in stages, striving to eliminate sources of trouble beyond the zone, which they already controlled. The conquest of one area led to the conquest of the next in a series of piecemeal operations, which eventually, after nearly 35 years, brought Roman troops up to the southern territory of the Brigantes. Wales had posed particular problems to the conquering forces, and it would have been strategically unthinkable to begin the conquest of northwest England if the Welsh tribes were still capable of revolts in the rear. The Conquest of the Brigantes Roman expeditionary forces had already penetrated deep into Brigantia on a number of occasions to shore up Cartismandua’s regime, but they had limited objectives and withdrew when these were obtained. The Roman governor Ostorius Scapula may have passed through parts of Cheshire in his campaigns of A.D. 48 against North Wales, but the first evidence we have of concerted action against the Brigantes is under Vettius Bolanus (A.D. 69-71), who appears to have operated in the southern Pennines. In A.D. 71 the collapse of Cartismandua’s pro-Roman polices made the subjugation of Brigantia a logical next step. The governor Petillius Cerealis, leading the Ninth Legion, overran the Pennine Chain and the plains to the east and west of it in a series of campaigns that have left few recognisable archaeological traces. Certainly, he does not appear to have planted garrisons to hold the territory he had won. After A.D. 74 there was again a period in which Roman energies were concentrated on pacifying Wales, but in A.D. 79 the forward movement was resumed under the governor Agricola, to whom the conquest of the North West can be properly attributed. We can see his handiwork in the forts and road systems of our area, but we do not know much about his actual progress. In Agricola’s time the North West was crossed by two strategically placed Roman roads. The first ran east west across the Pennines linking the legionary fortresses at Chester and York, and making the movement of troops and equipment relatively easy. The main route northwards left this line at Manchester, which thus stood at an important point in the communications network. It passed up the western foothills of the Pennines into the Lake District and ultimately into Lowland Scotland. Consolidation Agricola had no security problem in the North West, since the population was so thin on the ground. The forts that he founded at Manchester and Ribchester were carefully sited on river crossings, and his other forts – such as Melandra, Castleshaw and Slack – were in tactically strong positions. By A.D. 100, a secondary route had been opened up, linking Chester more directly with the Lake District, an area that Agricola seems to have ignored. Settlements (as opposed to forts) at Wilderspool near Warrington and Walton-le-Dale mark a line across the Lancashire Plain, which leads north to the newly founded fort at Lancaster. The Roman garrison forts of the North West were manned by auxiliary troops, distinct from the legions stationed at Chester and York. Auxiliaries were raised in the less civilised parts of the Roman Empire and their role was to support the better-trained and equipped legionaries. Auxiliary units could be cavalry or infantry, 500 or occasionally 1000 strong. Often, auxiliaries brought their native style of weapons with them into service of Rome, so the Roman army was not a completely stereotyped organisation as it is often thought of as being today. Roman forts, however, were laid out according to a standard. Throughout the history of excavations of the Melandra site, this has been an irrefutable blessing as such ‘blueprint’ structures provide archaeologists with a virtual map of what they should be looking for. Because of the idiosyncrasies present in every Roman fort, any Roman soldier entering such an edifice for the first time would know just where to find the main buildings. An auxiliary fort typical of those we find in the North West was ‘playing card’ shaped in plan (not quite as simple as a rectangle as the corners were rounded off). It was defended by a rampart – at first of turf and timber, later stone-faced – and ditches. There was a gate with guard-towers in each side of the fort. The headquarters building and its offices (arranged around a central courtyard), lay in the centre of the fort, at the main road junction. The commandant lived in a large house next door, while the private soldiers were quartered in barracks constructed as long-strip building. Other buildings, such as granaries for the corn supply, a field hospital and workshops, were grouped around the central buildings. For cavalry, stables were provided. This is precisely the layout one would have expected to find at Melandra. Excavation over the past 70 years has shown that an earth and timber rampart, fronted with one or more ditches, enclosed an area of about 3 ½ acres. Later, perhaps soon after A.D. 100, a stonewall was added to the front of the rampart, and impressive gateways allowed passage through each of the four sides. The only internal building completely excavated is the stone HQ building in the centre, which probably had a timber forerunner on the same spot. This seems to be the only structure in stone; for the soldiers were housed in timber barracks throughout the fort’s history. It is hoped that current excavations will reveal more in due course about the internal arrangements. There was also a military bathhouse discovered outside the northwest corner of the fort. It was soundly constructed, dressed in stone and tile. Civilian Settlements The Roman army offered the best-paid regular job in the Roman world. There were excellent career prospects and wide opportunities for travel. A soldier’s life was attractive – but to many the most attractive thing about it was the money. However, soldiers on garrison duty had little chance to spend their hard-earned cash anywhere away from the immediate areas of the forts, so enterprising provincials with something to sell, flocked to the garrison forts to make their fortunes. This is the origin of the civilian settlement, the vici, which grew up round most forts in northern Britain. There were large civilian settlements attached to the forts at Ribchester and Manchester, as we have discovered by excavation. Their buildings lined the roads out of the forts but were not allowed to encroach upon the military zone within the fort ditches. Indeed, the camp commandment had the right to order the levelling of the vicus, if he felt that it had become a fire risk or blocked an essential line of vision from the ramparts. Melandra had an extensive vicus at an unusually early date. We know that it contained a large house in timber, perhaps a rest house for travelling officials. There are traces of private and commercial buildings, too, east and northeast of the fort defences. A rampart and a single ditch, which ran along the eastern and southern edge, protected all of these structures. Forts and their civilian settlements have been excavated in the North West, but we know surprisingly little of other civilians, the Romano-British population. They must have tilled the cultivatable land on the Cheshire plain and in the Dales, or eked out a living with their flocks on the moors, as they did in Northumberland. The industrial revolution has blotted out a great deal of course, but intensive fieldwork, both on the ground and by the use of aerial photography, can be expected to fill this gap in due course. Later History The Roman conquest of the North West did not bring an unbroken ‘Roman Peace’. The Brigantes did not take kindly to Rome’s tight bureaucratic control and regular taxation. Under Hadrian (A.D. 117-138) there are signs that a strong military presence was maintained west of the Pennines. This contrasts with the Yorkshire side of the Pennines, where many of the garrisons seem to have been withdrawn. Hadrian did not trust the provincials in the North West. Nevertheless, by about A.D. 140 both Melandra and Castleshaw were given up, probably to man the newly built Antonine wall in Scotland, and were never reoccupied. Hadrian’s optimism with regard to the Central Brigantes was misplaced: for in the years following A.D. 150, some of the abandoned forts had to be reoccupied. The Brigantes must have been restive. There are signs of renewed trouble 35 years later, when some of the Brigantes took the opportunity of settling old scores against local garrisons. Coins found in Manchester show that the fort was still occupied after A.D. 370 as one might expect from its important position on the road system. Excavation at Lancaster in 1971 revealed a mass of pottery dating to the last years of the fourth century. So both Lancaster and Manchester may have retained their original functions until the departure of Roman administration in A.D. 410. After 410 there was a power vacuum in the North West, in which the native British dynasties may have reasserted themselves. It is known that the plains of Lancashire and Cheshire served for several centuries as the link between the powerful British kingdoms in Wales and their counterparts in North Britain. The fort itself Before I talk in depth about the intriguing history of the fort itself I feel I should start by discussing the very essence of the structure: the stone it was eventually fortified with. At first glance, stone appears to be extremely boring. It is cold, grey, lifeless and uninspiring to the untrained eye, but to that of an archaeologist, it oozes intrigue and answers to questions posed by the more fascinating components of such a fort. Where did the stone come from? How was the fort put together? Who built it? When was it built? All these questions can be answered from the bricks themselves in the material, style and dressing of each individual stone. So where was the stone for the fort quarried? There is no shortage of stone in this area so identifying the exact location would be difficult without clues left by the Romans themselves. In this quest we must be careful not to be thrown off the scent as one might be temporarily when studying the legend of Hooley Wood Quarry in Padfield. The fact that many Roman coins were found there in 1838, suggests that Hooley Wood could be the place where the Romans got their material. But here we run into a few problems, which are worth addressing to highlight the thought process one must go through to eliminate candidates such as Hooley Wood. Firstly, as far as investigating the site of Hooley Wood goes, it does not feature on any map meaning we are unsure of its location. Hamnett suggested that travelling a mile northeast of the fort to the township of Padfield would lead us to the site of ‘Hooley Wood’. 1.28 miles in this direction gets one to Padfield and a stone’s throw further to a quarry, which lies next to the former railway line route. Here is where we stumble across problem number two, which despite being more of a talking point, is still a proverbial spanner in the works. The coins were discovered in 1838, not surprising really as that date coincides with the mining of the stone to make way for the railway itself being laid. Now unfortunately, we cannot simply draw concrete conclusions from what this means. Whether there was a quarry there before the railway is difficult to ascertain, especially thanks to the fact ‘Hooley Wood’ doesn’t appear on any documents that could guarantee its placement, I would say it was likely that a quarry existed but cannot be sure. Also we don’t know how the coins were unearthed; by that I question whether they were surface finds or whether they turned up after considerable digging. For ‘Hooley Wood’ to be the location from which the Romans who built Melandra to acquire their stone I would assume that it a) would have to have been a quarry before 1838 and b) that the coins were found on the surface. More likely though, considering problem number three, ‘Hooley Wood’ was not the site that can be credited with the stone used for the fortification of the fort at Melandra. Problem number three is in the coins themselves. They are mainly coins of Alexander Severus (A.D. 231-235) and Empress Julia of around the same time. These coins would be contemporary with the second occupation but not the first and so, we assume not at the time of refortification from wood to stone. Another more likely explanation comes from Mr. Jim Chatterton of Tintwistle who purports to know the actual location of Hooley Wood. According to him it is situated on the Padfield side of Torside River just below Woodhead Dam. There is no shortage of quarries in this area so it is definitely possible but problem number three still stands; wherever the coins where found, be it Hooley Wood according to Hamnett or Hooley Wood according to Chatterton, the location probably throws no more light on the source of the material that built Melandra as it is definitely more likely that the stone was quarried from either, Hargate Hill, Cown Edge or Tintwistle. Such a concrete conclusion was struck upon by the quizzing of a local stone mason, who, when asked of the stone’s origin, replied: “Bit of hard stuff you have got here, comes from Mouselow or Tinsel, or some other local source.” As Sharp rightly says; no knowledge for Latin needed, just a lifetime of experience. Add this opinion to the fact that the other stone in the area seems to have come from the same place and been dressed in a similar way and it seems plausible that we have stumbled across the source for the fort: local stone. Extract from Glossop remembered: “The early excavations of Melandra found that the foundations of the walls consisted of grit stone flags resting on boulders embedded in the clay. Above these flags was the first course of the wall built from stones with the characteristic picked finish. The stone wall was narrower than the foundation in the same manner as we would build today. The total height of the walls can only be estimated, but it would need to be at least shoulder height above the rampart and may have had castellations.” The Structure of the fort The fort is of the common ‘playing card’ shape and covers approximately three and a half acres. The defences consisted of an outer line of ditches (some of which were filled in while the fort was still in use) and stone walls, backed by earth ramparts. Each gateway had two flanking towers; three of the gates were double but the south gate was much narrower because the approach from this side was easier, making it more likely to attack. There was a tower at each corner of the fort but so far no trace has been found of ‘internal towers’. The fort interior held barrack blocks; store sheds; granaries; officers’ billets; the commanding officer’s house and the Headquarters building; at present only the foundations of the Headquarters are visible- most of the other buildings appear to have been timber framed and have left little trace, The camp ovens were built into the rampart on the eastern side of the fort so that the prevailing wind would carry sparks away from the fort. Melandra was a ‘one cohort fort’ - with a nominal garrison strength of 500 officers and men so 6 barrack blocks were need, each housing a ‘Century’ of 80 men. A ‘Bath-block’ lay outside the northern rampart and various small huts lay between the ditches and the outer palisade. A ‘Mansio’ or ‘posting station’ lay between the fort and the present Melandra Castle Road and a fair sized native settlement, or vicus, lies under the present Gamesly estate. The accumulating of building materials; the clearing of grazing land for pack and draught animals as well as the continuing gathering of fuel had a considerable effect on the land around the fort: plant evidence suggests that small farmsteads were established in the vicinity. The Garrison The two units who worked on the site were both auxiliary infantry cohorts and used as skirmishers in battle and as the garrisons of the small forts, which were built to keep occupied territory quiet. I Cohort Frisiavones was recruited north of the Rhine – as this area was in revolt in 96 AD, the raising of this cohort was probably done some time between 98 AD and 100 AD: there is no mention of their being in Britain until early in the second =century and it is likely that they were brought in as a reinforcement in the early Trajanic period. III Bracara Augustani came from the colony of Bracara Augustanorum (Braga in Portugal) and was probably made up of Iberian Celts. They were transferred from the legionary headquarters on the Rhine to Caerleon in 89 AD and seem to have been attached to the XX Legion Valeria Victrix at Chester. The 1st Cohort of Frisians being a ‘1st Cohort’ would have roughly a thousand men, including specialist craftsmen such as carpenters and stone-masons who could do the skilled work of building – which explains why the ‘centurial stone’ from the walls of Melandra is of the Frisians and not the Bracara. We do not know which unit provided the permanent garrison at Melandra but it seems likely that the Bracara, being ‘hill-men’ and the most experienced unit, would have been better suited to hold Melandra. Auxiliary units were not equipped to the same standard as the legionary infantry – they were often issued with slightly old fashioned, cheaper helmets and body armour, and some units used their traditional tribal weapons rather than the normal legionary types. The most obvious difference could be observed in the body armour: auxiliaries tended to wear either chain mail of lizard scale shirts while the legionaries wore the ‘lorica segmentata’ – the articulated hoop armour. Whichever unit provided the garrison would have had to carry out a variety of duties – escorting official ‘convoys’; patrolling the district; working on road construction; helping to collect taxes and providing the labour at harvest time to supplement the food supply with locally grown produce. Auxiliary soldiers served for 25 years and it is possible, in view of the date of the arrival of the Bracara in Britain, that some of the farmsteads close to the fort were ‘allotments’ given to veterans who had completed their years of service. The Headquarters building The H.Q. or Principia seems to have been the only building made wholly of stone: it contained the Assembly Hall (which will hold a full century of men): the C.O.’s office; the shrine and the unit pay and records office. The small buildings, which line the courtyard, were probably for ‘unit stores’ of the more valuable sort. The shrine (the centre room at the rear of the building) has a floor of crushed tile. The Imperial Alter was kept at the southern end of the room and smaller altars, one for each century, stood along the walls with the various standards of the unit. The top of the Imperial Altar has survived, but the altars themselves, which were renewed annually, the previous one being securely hidden, have never been found: five of the small uninscribed altars are still in existence. At the rear of the building there is a small cobbled pavement which amrks the spot from which the ‘official witnesses’ could watch ceremonies in the shrine through the grille above the Imperial Altar. The room at the western end, the C.O.’s office, has a door leading to the platform at the end of the assembly hall: the room at the other end, judging by the lines of nails found during excavation, once has a board floor and at some point in its life had a hearth in the centre of the room. Some indications have been found of an earlier timber building on a different alignment to the present H.Q. Gateways and Gates Paradoxically, the gateways were the weak points of the defences for they were the only places at which a concerted rush could be made without the enemy having to clamber in and out of the ditches: to reduce the danger, the gateways were made into defensive strong points from which missiles of various sorts could be fired at the attackers in both flanking and enfilading fire. The gates themselves were of extremely stout construction to withstand attacks with battering rams and the hinges were normally shielded by the edges of the gateway. Although the gateways at Melandra had two towers, the south gate had a different gate – a single ‘door’ of the ‘spear’ type in which one of the timbers of the door acted as a pivot. Ditches The ditches of a Roman fort were intended to prevent attackers reaching the foot of the wall in large numbers: the ditches were deep and wide enough to bring the attackers virtually to a standstill within javelin range. At Melandra, the ditch system is relatively slight and some of the ditches were filled in and cobbled over during the fort’s active life, suggesting that the garrison did not expect large scale attacks: the numerous small buildings close to the ditches on the north side of the fort also suggest relative freedom from fear of attack since they would have provided cover within the ‘killing ground’. Walls and Corner Towers The timber palisade was replaced by stonewalls some twelve feet high, four feet thick and faced with roughly dressed stone cut from the quarry on Hargate hill. The rounded corners of the fort were built to a radius of 32 feet with ‘corner towers’ built on the inside. The base of the tower closest to the modern car park was found to contain quantities of charcoal: fragments and wasters of bronze workings were found close by so the charcoal may have been the fuel store for a workshop but it may have been the result of firing the internal timbering of the tower when the fort was abandoned. The exposed base of the N.W. tower has masonry of better quality and the marks of the roman masons’ chisels can be seen on some of the blocks. The badly eroded S.W. tower had a final period of military use in World War II as a Home Guard Machine gun post. No evidence of Roofing has survived but the exposed site and the severity of the weather make it likely that all the towers were roofed. Road System Although Mr P. Rowe has investigated the road from Melandra to Buxton, the rest of the road system has not been positively identified though one stretch of road is known to be under Melandra Castle Road and another can be seen as a crop angling across the slope below Carr House Farm. The roads in the fort have been resurfaced to protect them and there is a short stretch of road from the S. gate to Melandra Castle Road: several cremations have been found along the edge of this road. The Disappearance of the Fort Melandra was used for centuries as a convenient source of stone, rubble and gravel for local builders: re-used stone has been found at Wooley Bridge; Melandra Farm and in Various walls throughout the district. It is believed that considerable quantities of the stone were used in the building of Mottram Church and that the large amounts of gravel taken from the sides of the site for road levelling the 18th-19th century may explain some of the casual finds of roman material last century. Small Finds From Melandra The acid soil of the fort attacks iron and even pottery, but some objects have survived to throw light onto the everyday life of the garrison. A number f small bronze objects- dress fasteners; weights; the suspension hook for a ‘steelyard’ type balance; a harness ‘terret’ and fragments of waste bronze serve to show that there was probably a bronze caster working in the vicus. Very few coins have been found. The pay of auxiliary soldiers was low enough to make sure that they were careful with their money. Most of the coins found are in poor condition and of low ‘face value’. Those which can be dated indicate, as does the pottery, that the periodic of maximum activity in the fort was between 80-140 AD with the occupation ending between 140-150 AD. Various objects and scraps of leather have been found: a section of a leather tent panel; a sling; ‘army boots’ and slippers have been found in the damper levels of the ditches. Some timber has survived in the ditches in good enough condition for it to be treated and preserved for future exhibition. The most important wooden objects found are the tent pegs which are in extremely good condition and may well date from the construction phase of the fort or show that troops in transit were allowed to camp between the fort and civil area. Following are the excavation reports for the fort as documented by Manchester University from 19??-19??. These extracts have been omitted from chapter 4 for ease of referencing. The Bathhouse In 1971, Michael Brown stumbled across the remains of a Roman Bathhouse on the site of Melandra. Upon excavation it was clear that his find was of standard military design as seen at Cumbria, Vindolanda and Hardknott. The discovery was at first perplexing due to the incomplete nature of the structure, however it soon became apparent that over time, land subsidence had cause the bathhouse to slip away from its original location and in some parts, collapse down the hillside towards Glossop brook. It had been thought that either there had been no bath house at Melandra or that it had disappeared without trace but the subsequent excavations under the direction fo Dr. J.P. Wild, instigated by Brown’s discovery of the first wall of one of the hot rooms, have shown that the bath house was much larger than was thought at first and that it passed through several phases of alteration and reconstruction. These typical military baths consisted of a number of rooms, changing rooms, probably toilets and some that had under floor heating. Wood Burning furnaces at one end of the block produced hot air which passed under the floors and up inside the walls, heating the rooms, A sequence of rooms had increasingly high temperatures so that the bathers could sweat the dirt out of their pores which could then be washed and scraped off with oil and strigils or scrapes. The baths were often used by the troops as a social club in which to relax and play games of chance in off duty hours. Often fragments of home made gaming boards and counters or game pieces are found in bathhouses and the one at Melandra was no exception. The baths were built over some of the earlier fort ditches when discovered still retained some of the largest sections of stonework and tile to be found on the site. Investigations are still continuing. It is possible that the Rev. Watson, the first person to write about the fort, who witnessed the demolition of buildings still standing on the north side of the fort in 1777 actually saw the bathhouse in its original location before its innocuous journey down the hillside over the next two centuries. Personal account of M Brown, post discovery: 1972 (the extract has been edited for ease of reading) “…During the course of Sunday, August 13th 1972, masonry noticed on the edge of falling ground North of the fort, approximately between the North gate and the Northwest corner tower. Previously in the ground, some three feet above this level and an equal distance towards the fort were large pieces of floor (?) of pinkish material/mortar containing red tile/brick aggregate. Also, portions of keyed flue tile have been found (thin silt noticed in early 60s masked over site plans and air photos. Previous finds of Hypocaust tile reported to P. V. Webster, author of the forthcoming report, M.O.W digs 1966-1970). The wall found consisted of between 4 and 7 courses of mortared stone on a mortar and rubble foundation standing on clay. It ran in an East-West direction and a short abutting wall some 2’ 2” wide joined it from the North. The short section appeared to descend the hill and after some 4’ became robbed our leaving only the denatured mortar base in the clay/ The areas over and around the wall were packed loosely with broken Hypocaust tile and broken up plaster and brick-much of it almost completely rotted. On the clay level was a black deposit, varying from 3-6 inches in depth, presumably the accretion of soil before robbing took place. The wall appeared to return at right angles toward the fort and following this is proved in actual fact to be a curved wall of some 4’ 6” radius which decreased from 7 courses to 2 over some 7 feet…” Following are the summarised excavation reports for the bath block as documented by Manchester University from 1973-1996. These extracts have been omitted from chapter 4 for ease of referencing. 1973 Extracts on the Bathhouse from newspapers and other publications:ANCIENT SAUNA BATH DAMAGED by Bernard Pratt (no date available, publication is assumed to be the Glossop Chronicle) “A newly excavated military sauna bath at Melandra Roman fort in Derbyshire has been damaged by children. Archaeologists found yesterday that many of the floor supports, which were the most delicate part of the excavation, had been smashed with heavy pieces of stone on Sunday night. They will now have to be cemented together again. The site is close to housing and the children who broke up the hypocaust were only keeping up a 200-year old local custom. Before about 1770, Melandra Castle- as the ministry direction signs insist on calling it- was still recognisably like a fort, with stone faced walls laid out in the classic Roman playing card pattern. Then the more enterprising villagers of Dinting Vale began transferring the masonry down the hill to build their houses. All that is left now are the earthworks of the outer walls and the foundations of a few buildings. Dr Colin Wild, who is directing the excavation as part of the training programme of Manchester University archaeologists, believes all the stone from the walls is within half a mile of the fort. He also means to have it back. Local amateur archaeologists are keeping records of the cottages with Roman facing stones, and as they come up for demolition, the Roman masonry is being stored by High Peak Borough Council. Eventually it could be used to restore the outer walls of Melandra. Dr Wild is also philosophical about the latest damage, which is not serious. The hypocaust had been measured and photographed before it was attacked, and he believes it will be safe once it is cemented. The children who threw the stones about, it should also be said were only completing some vandalism started by the troops when they were posted northwards from Melandra in about AD 140-145. Dr Wild believes they demolished it before moving out. His team has found traces of the original wooden fort built on the site by Agricola in about AD 80. The facing stones were not added until about AD 105, and there are signs that a team of military masons from the Frisians stationed at Manchester was sent to show the local unit how to do it. At present the main work is centred on the headquarters building and the area excavated includes the foundations of the shrine, where the battle standards were kept. The money was also kept there, but the soil is so acid that metal objects have not survived. This may be a blessing because the site is so accessible that it would be overrun by trippers with metal detectors at the drop of a denarius.” Further insight to the Brigantes During this project I stumbled, quite by accident, upon a great deal of information on the original inhabitants of the area: the Brigantes. This information presented itself to me in the form of local residents’ own interest in the tribe that spanned a relatively large geographical area at the time. In particular, Diana Virgo of High Street West, Glossop, encouraged me to pursue the mystic of the Brigantian peoples further. Her insights and beliefs of the people and their practices spurred me on to write this chapter and include it amongst information in which the information discussed is most relevant and enlightening. It is common for peoples such as the Brigantes to be thoroughly mentioned but rarely explored in texts focussing on an event in which they played a part but were not the pivotal characters. Because of their ‘bit-part’ in the history of Melandra the richness of their culture is oft ignored and although not necessary to the fundamental understanding of the site, is particularly interesting to the scholar wishing to form a more complete picture of past events in their mind. That is, of course, the aim of this book; to provide a comprehensive history, and I felt that in the case of the Brigantes, some embellishment was required. I have no doubt that more in depth texts on the Brigantes exist and I would urge the enquiring mind to pursue these works in an effort to fully understand the impact of Melandra on the tribe’s existence. What follows is merely to whet the appetite for more thorough questioning of the peoples involved in the fort’s history. Brigantia and the Brigantes Brigantia was the kingdom of the hill people who were devotees of the goddess Brigantia. The people were numerous and the territory was extensive, covering the whole of northern England from sea to sea from the Trent to Tyne and Solway. They were a restless people, more primitive in their ways than their neighbours the Coritani and he Cornovii but they were powerful enough to have been able to abandon their hill forts and live instead in sprawling townships which the Romans called ‘oppida’. The tribe was both warlike and acquisitive: their name passed into Latin and then into Italian to become the modern word ‘brigand- a fierce robber operating in wild country. They were ruled at the time of the Roman invasion by a ‘Queen’ called Cartismandua who was astute or cowardly enough to accept the superiority of the Roman forces and become a client-ruler (which meant that in turn for regular payments and ‘protection’, she would make the tribe behave). She was not always successful: in 47AD, Tacitus records the fact that the Brigantes had been raiding across the Trent but dismisses the raids as being of little importance. Cartismandua was estranged from her husband, Venutius, and wished to divorce him so that she could marry his ‘armour-bearer’ (reputed to be pro-roman). The tribe divided and a civil war broke out. The Queen asked for Roman assistance and the troops were sent into the tribal territory. The attempt to quieten the tribe was unsuccessful and in 69 AD the Romans moved in with the intention of bringing the area more fully under their control. Cartismandua was brought out to safety and a long campaign was fought against Venutius, ending, according to the Roman account with his final defeat at Stanwick- though as there were outbreaks of unrest amongst northern tribes for the next hundred years, the victory may not have been as final as Tacitus suggests. Melandra in the media Within this section I will include extracts from newspapers, other journals (where the extract fits nowhere better than this chapter), photographs taken by the public or by journalists and hand-written notes on the site. The purpose of ‘Melandra in the media’ is to collect all the varying documentation of the site and the digs that have gone on there in one place. The information in this section may not be of much academic or scientific interest but is essential to the historian who wishes to fully understand the changing perspective on Melandra through time. Extract from “Derbyshire life March 1970” (photo needs scanning, in YF) MELANDRA CASTLE “On the bank of the River Etherow at Glossop and therefore on the very border of Derbyshire, stand the remains of a Roman Station 120 yards by 112 yards in extent. The picture shows the base of a corner rampart of Melandra Castle.” Extract from “Derbyshire life June 1980” (no photo) EXCAVATIONS TO CONTINUE “The Roman fort of Melandra Castle at Gamesley, near Glossop, may yield some more of its secrets to the archaeologist’s pick, shovel and trowel this summer. Dr and Mrs John Wild are planning to carry out another fortnight’s excavation on the site in June with a digging team of students from Manchester University’s archaeology department. The rampart and ditch, which defended the fort from 79 to about 140 A.D., are surprisingly well preserved. The stone foundations of the headquarters building in the centre of the fort are also visible, but most of the barrack accommodation for the soldiers in garrison at Melandra was in timber, and nothing survives of it but the stains of post-holes in the ground. Almost every Roman fort had a bath block - built outside the rampart to reduce the fire risk – and Melandra is no exception. Melandra’s baths were not located until 1971, just outside the northwest corner, and since then archaeologists have been able to excavate and map out piece by piece the layout of the rooms. The baths were built in at least two stages – and there was some monumental bungling, for which the soldier architect must have been carpeted! The first three rooms to be built – a ‘cold’ room, a ‘warm’ room and a ‘hot’ room, with under floor heating – were set on a terrace cut into the hillside. But part of the terrace was dumped earth and soon it started to slide down the slope causing the building to crack. It must soon have been unusable, and so two more rooms with under floor ‘hypocaust’ heating were added to the side nearest the fort. The digging is slow. Every change of colour in the soil has a meaning for the archaeologist, whose aim is to extract the maximum information from it. In the years to come much more will be discovered about the lives of those Romans who spent a few windswept years up at Melandra.” Notes on the site of Melandra by Peggy Davies, formerly of Glossop Heritage Centre. (Best efforts have been made to include all of what is said but much of the writing was illegible. Grammar and spelling have been modified in some places to make the passage readable but most is original) “Large numbers of roofing tiles found with nail holes and an abundance of iron nails have been found on site. Mortar has been found with limestone from Castleton area. “We can imagine Roman carts loaded with limestone climbing the steep road over the Snake Pass to Ladyclough then turning down Doctor’s Gate and across the moors for the new fort building at Melandra. “Agricola (78-85) probably chose the site at Melandra as he was famous for picking good sites – not a single fort established by Agricola was either stormed by the enemy or abandoned by capitulation or flight. “3 points were necessary: abundance of wood, food and water. “Central buildings housed a sanctuary – standards were deposited, a strong room (treasure house or bank) storehouses or granary, commandant’s and officer’s quarters and barracks. “In a fort such as Melandra whose special function was to watch the hill tribes, the sentry duty was rigorously carried out. A new watchword would be given out every night. To avoid detection the word was never said aloud but written on a wooden tablet (tessera) and handed by a commander in chief to the tribune. The tribune in his turn handed the tessera to the vessarius who returned with it and passed it along the line of soldiers. “Melandra lay in an amphitheatre of hills, from which the River Etherow flowed. To the southeast stretched the hills of the Peak where to the northeast stretched Longendale (in Doomsday described as ‘waste’). “Derbyshire had three of these forts; Little Chesterworth of Derby, Brough in the Noe Valley and Melandra. “Coins found at Melandra suggest it was founded in Agricola’s time (78-85). Originally named Ardotalia. Became Melandra castle in 1772. “Excavations in 1905 and 1899 seemed to show that the three double gateways at Melandra were massive stone structures consisting of two double arches of equal span springing from six piers and flanked by towers which may or may not have had useful chambers in the ground floor. “The fourth may have been smaller and spanned by a single arch or even enclosed in a wooden frame. “Approx area 3 ½ acres (Ribchester 5 acres, Manchester 6 acres). “Number of men determined size. (The next paragraph is illegible and seemingly nonsensical so has been omitted) “At this time of the Roman conquest there were two clearly defined regions- the lands of the South and East. The first was a district in which troops were posted. The second was a peaceful area whose soldiers were rarely seen. The uplands consist of the West Country moors, Welsh hill and the Pennine Chain and northern highlands that adjoin it. “Romans easily conquered the Lowlands in three-four years (43-47). “When they attacked the Brigantes – a different tale. It took nearly forty years to subdue the uplands (48-85). “Lowlands were civilised. Minerals worked, corn grown, wool dyed, little wealth but orderliness and peace. Civilian life stops were the hills begin. Forts and fortresses in the uplands. Garrison of 40-50 chosen men keeping the hills sites quiet and keeping the peace. “The garrison consisted of two grades of troops – Legions and auxiliaries. The legion was a body of 5,000-6,000 heavy infantry. “Three legions were garrisoned in Britain. One in each of the three large fortresses – York, Chester and Caerlon. “Besides the legions were troops of the second line – auxiliaries. They were less paid, less favoured and were in units of 500-1,000 men. They lived in forts- rectangular walled areas with 4 gates in opposite parts. There were headquarters in the middle and barracks and storerooms in wood or stone covering the interior. (Next paragraph is completely irrelevant so has been omitted) “Melandra stands on a promontory overlooking valleys of Glossop Brook and Etherow. It is rectangular – each side had a central gate. Main entrance: double gateway on the northeast. From this the road led into the valley of Glossop Brook, down a steep descent. In the southwest gate a road curved round to the east. Southwest gate: small – maybe because it was the weakest side of the fort. Hills or streams protected the other three. We think this site was occupied in Pre-history times. “As Melandra lies within the southern boundaries of the Brigantes it would have been occupied by Roman troops during these skirmishes. Brough was occupied about 158 A.D. and as a Roman road connected Brough and Melandra we can believe they were occupied about the same time. Melandra was occupied probably from about 80 A.D. till towards the end of the fourth century.” Analysis Firstly I have to remind you that despite the last line of Ms Davies’ notes stipulating that Melandra was occupied until the end of the fourth century there was a gap (of probably more than a century) between the evacuation of the Romans until they returned at a later date. The occupation was not continuous. BATHHOUSE A Roman bath worked on a sauna principle. The bather having striped off in the changing room, went into a series of warm and hot rooms, which made him sweat. The Romans had no soap as we know it but oil was used on bathers body and then scraped off using a STRIGIL. Both hot and cold water were on hand for sluicing down and in the larger bathes there were plunge pools’ swimming pools and swimming baths. Some baths had exercise halls or yards for playing handball or doing training drills. On his way out of the baths the bather reversed the sequence of rooms so that he had cooled down by the time he reached the dressing room. It is the sequence of rooms at different temperatures, which determines the construction of a bathhouse. The stoke hole for the hot room is always as close as possible to the area which it has to heat; there has to be a way to bring in fuel and store it ready for use and the coal rooms usually lie as far as possible from the main source of heat. The Melandra’s Bath-House is a relatively small and simple one, intended to serve only the Garrison and a few of the civilians, but it was altered and extended several times (phases) which is why it has already taken a number of years to dig and record the remains of the building. In addition to this the land northwest of the fort had fallen away considerably since Roman times, because of subsidence. Because of this, many of the features that comprise the first phase of the bathhouse as well as other Roman buildings now lie some distance away from, and below their original positions. (Plenty of Mike’s pictures can be added in this section, they need scanning!) HIGHSTONES There was probably signal station at Longendale. The fort is in the bottom of the valley and to pass messages to the forts on either side repeater signal stations would be necessary. In all probability there would have to be one at Mottram, from where Manchester could be seen, and one at the earthworks still visible at Highstones near Crowden. From Melandra the site at Highstones is visible and possibly another further up the valley would alert the for to incoming traffic on the route over the Pennines from Doncaster, York or Lincoln. (Map can be added here and do some more research on signal stations cause it’s proper interesting :P) Excavations at the fort 1899-1900: West wall and gateway. East Gate and Corner Towers 1906-1907: Excavation of the HQ 1908-1911: Ramparts and roads inside fort 1911-18: East gate and HQ 1935-1938: Excavations of the Ditches and Barracks (2 weeks per year) 1958: West gate and south gateways 1966-1969: Excavations by the Dept of the Environment on the site of the civil settlement South and East of the fort prior to the building of Gamesley estate 1973-1998: 16 excavations on the HQ, the ramparts and the Bathhouse by Manchester University The Garrison if the fort The only known reference to any Roman army units at Melandra can be found in two items. The centurial stone which names Centurion Valerius Vitalis and the 1st Auxiliary Cohort of Frisiavones as part of the unit, which built whatever part of the fort that, the stone came from. (Now in Buxton Museum) A fragment of roof tile bearing the stamp of the 111 Auxiliary Cohort of Bracara Augustanorum found in the bathhouse. Matching inscriptions were found at Manchester and it would seem that two units worked together. The stonework being constructed by the Frisian unit and the tile work by the Iberians who very probably set up workshops and tileries close to the site. Remaining Masonry The North West tower base still remains as found at the start of the excavations on the site. Part of the HQ building wall was cleared and consolidated by the Melandra field Group in the early 1970s, as was part of the South East corner. Part of the interior of the semi-circular pool in the south face of Phase 1 of the bathhouse remains uncovered but is presently overgrown. Historical information Early in the second century A.D. TRAJAN became emperor (98 A.D.) Soon afterward, he gave orders that some of the old wooden forts in Britain should be rebuilt in stone (this suggests that there was still trouble in Northern Britain: the fort at Melandra was one of those rebuilt) The old turf ramparts were replaced by stonewalls. Proper stone gate towers and corner towers were built and old buildings in the interior were demolished or burnt. Before the new buildings were erected, the whole of the interior of the fort was covered with a layer of clay to provide a new building surface. The Headquarters was rebuilt and the Bathhouse altered. At about this time, a Mansio or lodging house for travellers was built in the area outside the fort (Vicus), which was used by civilians. The outer ditches would break up the force of an attack leaving the attackers to face the problem of climbing out of a deep ditch and up a steep bank on top of which was a wooden stockade manned by trained soldiers in armour. The only weak places in the defences were the gates and these were protected by flanking turrets, which allowed the defenders to concentrate heavy volleys of arrows, javelins and stones on to the attackers packed into the narrow approach to the gate. Even if the fort was attacked by a very large number of men who decided to lay siege to it, the reserve of food in the fort was large enough to allow the garrison to sit out in the siege without being forced onto starvation rations. Fire was probably the only real siege weapon that had any effect, and even that could be fought by organised ‘fire parties’. Old age was the real enemy of wooden forts, for after about thirty years many of the timbers would have rotted. The fort continued in full use until about the middle of the second century A.D. with a marked increase in the use of the place in Hadrian’s reign. In the latter part of the century there was again trouble in the North and the troops who had been garrisoning the Derbyshire forts had to be taken further north. Melandra was never reoccupied. The garrison deliberately damaged the fort when they moved out and the place gradually fell into ruins, the process being speeded up by locals foraging for anything useful, stone robbers taking stone for building and the extremes of weather. After sixteen centuries the fort had almost gone. There were a few buildings, in ruins but still standing, on the North side but the only real sign that it had once been a Roman Fort was the outline of the place, revealed by ramparts. In the Eighteenth Century, the Rev. Watson, of Mottram, drew attention to the fact that there could have been a fort on the Castle Carrs and began the process of investigation that continues today. Extra Vicus info All Roman forts had an outer area, which contained workshops and stores: this area was known as the VICUS and at Melandra, it lies between the ditches and the outer perimeter formed by the ditch and bank enclosure. The fact that the soldiers had money to spend (and little option of where to spend it!) soon attracted local trades to the vicinity of the fort so that small shops (including wine shops) soon sprang up and in a great many places. Civilian villages developed beyond a military style. Many towns in Britain owe their origins to this pattern of development and some continued to grow after the fort itself had been abandoned until the fort disappeared under the new civilian buildings (at Chester and Manchester). Forts were normally sited at staging points along the roads so provision was made for official travellers to be able to change horses; these animals were kept at stage stations known as Mutationes. There were larger inns for use by any traveller, these were called Mansiones (such as the Mansio at Melandra). The Mansio at Melandra lies between the fort and the Gamesley estate. It was a large timber framed building with many small rooms as stables and kitchens. By 47 A.D., the Romans had established a frontier along the east bank of the River Trent which separated the lands of the CORITANI and the BRIGANTES. The Brigantes carried out a raid across Trent but were easily beaten. The Queen of the Brigantes, Cartismandua, was a client Queen. This meant she was paid by the Romans to keep her tribesmen well behaved. She allowed the Romans to begin trading with her people and to start exploiting the lead and silver deposits in the Peak District. In the mid fifties of the first century, she handed over to the Romans the British Resistance leader, Caratacus who had come to her for help. Unfortunately for her, the tribe became restless and an anti-Roman group formed under the leadership of her divorced husband Venutius. Fighting broke out amongst the tribesmen and Roman troops had to be sent in to bring Cartismandua out and take her to a place of safety. The Romans began to build forts in the tribal area to try to maintain order. It is at this points that the story of Melandra begins. No-one is yet quite sure when the first, wooden, fort was built at Melandra but it was probably during the ten years of campaigning which followed Cartismandua’s escape in 69A.D. Wooden forts could be built quickly- one the size of Melandra could have been constructed in about one month by using a large number of men, and were strong enough to withstand most attacks by tribesmen, though there is some evidence else where that forts were sometimes overrun by natives. The real strength of the forts was derived from their ditch system which broke up the force of an attack; the turf Ramparts which, with the palisades on top of them had to be climbed to get into the camp: the well equipped and trained soldiers and above all, the fact that enough food was stored in the fort to enable the garrison to sit out even a lengthy siege. ROMAN ROADS Although some of the roads in the area have been plotted, the area closest to the fort is the least documented. Roads were found leading south from the civil settlement but other roads are not yet known with certainty. A TIME CHART FOR MELANDRA 43 CLAUDIUS: Comes to power. 47 CLAUDIUS: The Roman invasion of Britain. The ‘FOSSE WAY’ frontier is established. 56-68 NERO: Trouble amongst the Brigantes. Boudiccan revolt. Colchester, London and St. Albans, burnt. Anglesey attacked. Forts built in Brigantia. 69 GALBA, OTHO, VITELLIUS: The year of the three emperors. Troops taken from Britain by Galba. Cartismandua rescued. 69-79 VESPASSIAN: Advance into Brigantia by Cerealis. Fortress at York. Frontinus in Wales. Fortress built at Chester. Agricola conquers Wales. Brigantia consolidated and possibly the first fort at Melandra. 79-81 TITUS: Agricola advances into Scotland up to Forth-Clyde line. 81-95 DOMITIAN: Further advances into Scotland. Agricola recalled. Legion II Adivtrix withdrawn from Britain. Colonia founded at Lincoln. 95-98 NERVA: Colonia at Gloucester. Welsh Forts rebuilt in stone. Excavation of Scottish forts began. 98-117 TRAJAN: Chester fortress rebuilt in stone. Also York. Stone fort built at Melandra. Revolt in North. 117-138 HADRIAN: Hadrian visits Britain. More troops brought in. Legion IX Hispana replaced by Legion VI Victrix. Hadrian’s wall begun. Revolt in North. 138-161 ANTONIUS PIUS: Advance into Scotland. Antonine wall built on Forth-Clyde line. Revolt in North. Circa 155 Derbyshire Garrisons withdrawn. Melandra Abandoned Antonine wall excavated 161-180 MARCUS AURELIUS: Some forts rebuilt. Final withdrawal from the Antonine wall. Further revolts. Summary of “Glossop Remembered” by Neville Sharp Roman forts did not necessarily require the planning or investment of time one might originally think. Due to the usually strategically orientated location of such structures it seems obviously that they played a part in a grander plan. Of course, this is true, the forts did link together in a way that facilitated communication but what we must remember is that all Roman soldiers were trained to erect fortifications, bridges, culverts and roads in a matter of hours. This was so marching legions could build a safe camp to protect themselves from attack each night. By this, what I mean is the fact we have no real idea of who actually built the first fort at Melandra, is not in the slightest bit surprising. In fact I doubt we will ever know for sure as it is possible that the first such fort on the site could have just been an overnight camp or a temporary base with no original intention of permanent fortification, at least, not contemporary with the time it was erected. We know that two cohorts of auxiliary troops inhabited the fort at Melandra, the 1st cohort of Frisians and the 3rd cohort of Bracara. Proof of this could be found in Centurial stones (slabs with inscriptions of the cohort’s name). Luckily, just such a stone was found for the “1st cohort of Frisians” by Sammy Cooper, of lower Gamesley and he built it into the wall over his home’s doorway. The stone can now be seen in the Museum at Buxton and the inscription read “C(o)ho(rs) 1 Frisiavo(num) (Centuria) Val(erii) Vitalis. Watson’s translation was “Valerius Vitalis, commanding a century, or company of the first cohort of the Frisians, was stationed here.” The Frisians, being a 1st Cohort would have roughly a 1000 men including the specialist craftsmen such as carpenters and stone masons who could do the skilled work of building; which explains why the centurial stone from the walls of the fort is that of the Frisians, not of the Bracara. Refortification of the fort into a stone building probably took place around 108 A.D. The site of Melandra was first noticed as being a Roman station by the Rev. John Watson, rector of Stockport who visited the site in July 1771. After identifying the site he wrote to the society of antiquaries to tell them of his finds. There have been two epochs of focused attention on the archaeology of Melandra. The first of which being the end of the 19th and beginning of the 20th century, with most work being carried out by Mr. Robert Hamnett (whose ideas are summarised in this book). Hamnett worked on the site with colleagues between 1899 and 1907, carrying out two digs; a preliminary search in 1899-1900 and a further excavation in 1906-1907 after a report on the site had been published by the Manchester Classical Association in 1906. When considering the results of the physical excavations of this time we must remember who it was carried out by and what context the information we have was recorded in. Unfortunately, Victorian Gentlemen who were well versed in the discipline of archaeology didn’t like getting their hands dirty and so paid the lower class working men of the time to carry out the manual labour for them. This of course is fine in principal, but in practice you would not doubt be left with damaged items or soil contexts, poorly excavated trenches, through ignorance of the task in hand, not laziness. Despite this many items were recovered from the early dig and considering the consistency of finds on the site over the last 100 years you can imagine how teeming with artefacts it must have been at the turn of the 20th century. Roman bronze and lead weights, an iron spearhead, a hatchet, lead dice and a soldier’s iron signet ring were all found. On top of this, a wealth of bronze and solver coins were found (as had been found by Samuel Shepley in 1841 who stumbled across the coffin of a Roman soldier containing a silver coin bearing the head of Domitian, 81-96, while making a goyt for his mill.) Strangely the coins seem to signify two stark periods of occupation on the site, one of which, one might find surprising. The first is as to be expected, coins show a range from 69-135 A.D. so they would have been in use at the time of the forts premier occupation from around 80 A.D.-140 A.D. The second period however is much later, between 259-388. Not only does this show us the enormous time span of Roman occupation but it also raises the issue of the re-colonisation of the fort, post-abandonment during the reign of Antonius Pius, in 140 A.D. A direct extract from Glossop Remembered by Neville Sharp (225) describes the entrance to the fort at Melandra extremely well: “The width of the rampart would be such that sentries could pass and the defenders wield their weapons effectively. There was a tower at each corner with a rounded outer face, the entrance to the towers being from the rampart as no trace of an entrance from ground level was found. The lower rooms of the towers could thus [be used] as prisons or storerooms, with the sentries on the rampart being responsible for the safe custody of their contents. “The fort had double gateways, and there was an inscribed stone over the centre of the outer arch. The sentries stood in the recesses between the entrances and there was a small guardroom in one of the lower rooms. There was a gravelled road between the western and eastern entrances and some of the kerbstones lining the road were still in place in1900. This road divided the fort roughly in half with the principia or headquarters, granary, offices, and alters in the southern part. The northern section contained the soldiers’ huts and workshops. The floor of the granary was paved with square tiles. Floor tiles, wall tiles, and fragments of hypocaust tiles were also found. Some of them have the letter R on them, some VV, which is an abbreviation of ‘Valiant and Victorious’, the motto of the 20th Legion. Another interesting find was the iron shoes of the south gate, which were found on the stone sockets of the gateway. “The eastern entrance was cleared to the foundations which were found to be perfect, with a guard chamber on the left, and a small tower on the right, having their lower courses of stone still remaining, The gateway was a double arched one, and many of the arch stones were found in the debris which enabled a portion of one of the pillars of the arch to be restored with the original stones found at its base. A stone flagged conduit was uncovered for over sixty yards which was probably the main drain for the camp, and outside the station, near the west tower was found a gravel road nine feet wide, leading to a plateau in an adjoining field which may have been used as a parade ground.” Sharp also thinks to outline the possible ‘demise’ of the fort: “ Evidence was found that the fort had been destroyed by fire with signs that many of the stones had been subjected to intense heat, and charcoal was found near the inner walls in the Praetorium and elsewhere. When the Romans abandoned a fort it was routine practice to remove the gates and burn them to prevent use by others, which would explain the charcoal. Alternatively it could have occurred in A.D. 367 when the Picts swept over Hadrian’s Wall, looting burning and slaying.” References The collections at Glossop Heritage centre The work of M Ward 2006 Manchester university dig reports Photographs supplied by Mike Brown Glossop Remembered Neville Sharp (2005) Refs from Derbyshire Archaeological Journal Hamnett, R., Melandra Castle, Derbyshire., DAJ, vol. 21, 1899. Garstang, J., Melandra Castle. , DAJ, vol. 23, 1901. Hamnett, R., Report of the excavations in 1889-1900., DAJ, vol. 23, 1901. May, T., Roman weights found at Melandra. , DAJ, vol. 25, 1903. Dawkins, W.B., The ancient roads connected with Melandra and the site. (Appendix)., DAJ, vol. 29, 1907. May, T., Further notes on the trade weights found at Melandra., DAJ, vol. 28, 1906. (Anonymous), Plan of the Roman fort, known as 'Melandra Castle', Derbyshire (Appendix)., DAJ, vol. 29, 1907. Dawkins, W.B.and R.S.Conway., List of miscellaneous remains in the custody of Mr. R. Hamnett. (Appendix)., DAJ, vol. 29, 1907. Conway, R.S., The Roman coins found at Melandra (Appendix)., DAJ, vol. 29, 1907. Classical Association, Manchester and District Branch., Melandra Castle; being the report of the Manchester and District Branch of the Classical Association for 1905, ed. by R. S. Conway. (Appendix)., DAJ, vol. 29, 1907. Bruton, F.A., The excavations at Melandra in 1905. (Appendix)., DAJ, vol. 29, 1907. Bruton, F.A., Some features of Roman forts in Britain. (Appendix)., DAJ, vol. 29, 1907. Conway, R.S., The trade and coin-weights found at Melandra. (Appendix)., DAJ, vol. 29, 1907. Hopkinson, J.H., The pottery found at Melandra. (Appendix)., DAJ, vol. 29, 1907. Williamson, H., Legio XX, Valeria Victrix (Appendix)., DAJ, vol. 29, 1907. Williamson, H., The probable date of the Roman occupation of Melandra. (Appendix)., DAJ, vol. 29, 1907. Hamnett, R., Excavations at the Roman camp of Melandra, 1906-7. , DAJ, vol. 30, 1908. Lawrance, H. and Holland, W.R., Melandra Castle. I. Excavations, 1908-1911 by H. Lawrance II. Origin of the name, by W.R. Holland. , DAJ, vol. 34, 1912. Petch, J.A., Recent work on Melandra Castle: preliminary report. , DAJ, vol. 64, 1943. Petch, J.A., The date of Melandra Castle: evidence of the pottery. , DAJ, vol. 69, 1949. Petch, J.A., Melandra Castle Excavations 1958., DAJ, vol. 78, 1958. Petch, J.A., Melandra Castle Excavations 1959., DAJ, vol. 79, 1959. Petch, J.A., Melandra Castle Excavations 1960., DAJ, vol. 80, 1960. Petch, J.A., Melandra Castle Excavations 1961., DAJ, vol. 81, 1961. Petch, J. A., Melandra Castle., DAJ, vol. 83, 1963. Webster, Peter V., Melandra Castle excavations, 1966., DAJ, vol. 87, 1967. Webster, Peter V., Excavations at Melandra Castle, Derbyshire, 1969., DAJ, vol. 89, 1969. Wroe, P. and Mellor, P., A Roman road between Buxton and Melandra Castle, Glossop., DAJ, vol. 91, 1971. Webster, Peter V., Melandra Castle Roman fort: excavations in the civil settlement, 1966-9., DAJ, vol. 91, 1971. Wroe, P. and Mellor, P., Roman road between Buxton and Melandra Castle., DAJ, vol. 91, 1971. Melandra references from Archaeology Sources on the Internet Burnham, B C, Keppie, L F J, Esmonde Cleary, A S, Hassall, M W C and Tomlin R S O, Roman Britain in 1994, Britannia XXV, 1992, p350 Frere, S S, Hassall, M W C and Tomlin, R S O, Roman Britain in 1976, Britannia VIII, 1977, pp387-8 Frere, S S and Tomlin, R S O, Roman Britain in 1982, Britannia XIV, 1982, p299 Frere, S S and Tomlin, R S O, Roman Britain in 1988, Britannia XX, 1989, p286 Frere, S S and Tomlin, R S O, Roman Britain in 1990, Britannia XXII, 1991, p245 Frere, S S, Hassall, M W C and Tomlin, R S O, Roman Britain in 1986, Britannia XVIII, 1987, p370 Frere, S S, Hassall, M W C and Tomlin, R S O, Roman Britain in 1991, Britannia XXIII, 1992, p323 Goodburn, Wright, R P, R, Hassall, M W C and Tomlin R S O, Roman Britain in 1975, Britannia VII 1976, pp322-3 Goodburn, R, Hassall, M W C and Tomlin R S O, Roman Britain in 1977, Britannia IX 1978, p432 Goodburn, R, Hassall, M W C and Tomlin R S O, Roman Britain in 1978, Britannia X 1979, p293 Grew, F O, Hassall, M W C and Tomlin R S O, Roman Britain in 1980, Britannia XII 1981, p335 Hassall, M W C, Wilson, D R, Wright, R P and Rea, J, Roman Britain in 1971, Britannia III, 1972, p314 Keppie, L F J, Esmonde Cleary, A S, Hassall, M W C, Tomlin R S O and Burnham, B C, Roman Britain in 1998, Britannia XXX, 1999, p344 Richmond, I A, Roman Britain 1910-1960, The Journal of Roman Studies L, 1960, p179 Wilson, D R and Wright, R P, Roman Britain in 1966, The Journal of Roman Studies LVII, 1967, pp180-1 Wright, R P, Roman Britain in 1958, The Journal of Roman Studies IL, 1959, p108 Wright, R P, Roman Britain in 1959, The Journal of Roman Studies L, 1960, pp215-6 Wilson, D R and Wright, R P, Roman Britain in 1969, Britannia I, 1970, p283-284 and 285 Wilson, D R, Wright, R P, Hassal, M W C, Bowman, A K, and; Thomas, J D, Roman Britain in 1973, Britannia V,1974, p420 and 464 Wilson, D R, Wright, R P and Hassal, M W C, Roman Britain in 1972, Britannia IV, 1973, p285 Roman Britain in 1937, The Journal of Roman Studies XXVIII, 1938, p182 Acknowledgements Dr Petch Mr P. Webster Mr Walter Waterworth, Dr J.P. and Mrs F Wild Mr P Wroe Pat Ellison Derbyshire archaeological society Dianna Virgo