The Little History of Lancashire (eBook)

Hugh Hollinghurst (Autor)

eBook Download: EPUB

2024 | 1. Auflage
192 Seiten
The History Press (Verlag)
978-1-80399-313-3 (ISBN)

Infos

The Historic County of Lancashire once stretched from Coniston Water in the Lake District in the north to the River Mersey in the south. It was the scene of Georgian triumph and tragedy in the first Industrial Revolution, and philanthropy and civil rights struggles in the Victorian era, followed by decline, renewal and hope for the future. From the formation of the county's terrain in the Ice Age and its earliest occupation by the Celts, through Roman occupation, the arrival of the Normans and the turbulence of civil war, Hugh Hollinghurst guides us through the ups and downs of Lancastrian history. Complete with illustrations and photographs, The Little History of Lancashire is the story of those who suffered - and those that benefited.

HUGH HOLLINGHURST was a deputy headteacher in Liverpool for twenty-six years. After retirement he wrote a number of books, mainly on local history and the art and architecture of Liverpool. He has given talks on his specialist subjects to 68 different societies in the Merseyside area. He lives in Crosby.

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The Romans Came, Saw, Conquered – and Went

VENI VIDI VICI (JULIUS CAESAR), ‘I CAME, I SAW, I CONQUERED’ – BUT NOT HERE IN LANCASHIRE

Julius Caesar made two reconnaissance expeditions in 55 and 54 BC and temporarily occupied part of south-east England. This was followed up a century later by an invasion under the Emperor Claudius and Roman civilisation then spread to the north-west. There are no Roman villas in Lancashire that are confirmed by archaeology (but many, for example, in Yorkshire and only one in Cheshire). It seems that Roman civilisation here was largely confined to forts and their accompanying ‘vici’ (not ‘I conquered’ in this context, but villages that grew up outside the forts to provide services for those inside). They made little impact on the settled way of life that Celtic farmers and communities led in Lancashire. Finally, in AD 383, after three centuries of occupation, the Romans withdrew their forces from Britain starting in the north and west of the island.

‘BEFORE THE ROMAN CAME TO RYE …

… the rolling English drunkard made the rolling English road’ (G.K. Chesterton, ‘The Rolling English Road’, 1913). But the Romans planned their straight and direct network carefully, constructed by the army primarily for military reasons. The line of the route was surveyed; there were no problems of land ownership to be overcome; and construction was immediate, well maintained and lasting. One of them led over the Pennines from Manchester to York. Remarkable remains can be observed at Blackstone Edge near Littleborough where a paved road with a central gutter runs through a sunken stretch of land (a holloway). Although suggested to be a turnpike road, it is overlaid with medieval features in places and only the Romans could have constructed a road of that quality before then. The best view of a typical straight line of a Roman road, maybe even in England, can be viewed from Jeffrey Hill above Longridge. Look north along the line of the road from Ribchester to a fort at Burrow in Lonsdale, 2 miles south of Kirby Lonsdale. The summit of Pen-y-Ghent, the sighting point for the Roman surveyors, can also be seen in the far distance.

A QUEEN, FAITHFUL TO THE ROMANS, UNFAITHFUL TO HER HUSBAND

From their initial landings in the south-east, roads were crucial in the Roman advance to the north-west. The road network linked up with forts at Chester and York, which were established in the AD 70s. The Romans were then in a position to advance into the territory of the Brigantes, a tribe covering the north of England. Here, Queen Cartimandua and her husband Vinutius befriended the Romans and suppressed an anti-Roman faction. Then, when Caratacus, the national leader of the opponents of Rome, was defeated in battle and fled to her for protection she promptly reinforced her loyalty by handing him over to the invaders. When Vinutius became alienated from his wife, she seized his brother and other relatives. He retaliated by invading her kingdom but Cartimandua was reinstated by the Romans. She scandalously replaced Vinutius with his armour bearer, but the infuriated Vinutius returned to the fray and again she had to be rescued by the Romans. The quarrel was ended when a new Roman governor, Agricola, took control. His biography, written by the Roman historian Tacitus, is the best historical record for this period of Britain.

THE ROMANS INVENT OUR MOTORWAY NETWORK

The network of Roman roads in the region was constructed by the army for the military purposes of supply and policing, as in the rest of the province. The first one to be constructed in Lancashire may have been from Chester.

M6: The road from the south crossed the River Mersey at its first fordable point at Wilderspool (near the Thelwall Viaduct) where there was a Roman ‘mansio’, or lodge, for travellers. It grew into a small industrial town manufacturing bronze, iron, glass and pottery.

M62: There seems to have been a road from Wilderspool to Manchester (Roman Mamucium), from which radiated at least three Roman roads. One led over the hills to York. Alongside it, at Blackstone Edge near Littleborough, stands a mysterious grit stone pillar called the Aiggin, which is possibly a waymarker for the pack horse route, also marking the boundary between Lancashire and Yorkshire. Originally 7ft high, it has fallen or been pushed over and reduced to 4ft. It is incised with a Latin cross and the enigmatic letters I and T, possibly standing for the Latin I(n) T(e) ‘In you’ (we trust). The name is said to be derived from the French aiguille (needle) or aigle (eagle). It shows how the road enjoyed a continuity of use from Roman times through centuries to the later period.

M61: Another Roman road radiating from Manchester led towards the River Ribble. On the way, you pass another early medieval cross at Affetside, once again showing a continuity of use. At the Ribble, a bridge was protected by a fort at Ribchester which, like Manchester, was a hub for radiating Roman roads.

M55: Want to visit Blackpool? Take the Roman road from Ribchester travelling west and well marked on the Ordnance Survey map. This would take you through what is now Preston to Kirkham, where there was a small fort, probably to maintain a cavalry presence.

M6: If you wanted to go north or south from Ribchester, you would travel on the Roman equivalent of the M6. This continued north from Wilderspool on the Mersey crossing to Lancaster, passing through Wigan (Roman Coccium), where there was probably a fort, to Walton-le-Dale near Preston. There, a Roman military supply depot has been unearthed with finds of silver, lead, pottery, wine, oil, glass and jewellery. Nearly every site in Roman Britain reveals Samian ware. Made out of red clay, it made a long journey by sea and road from the centre of France where it had been designed and manufactured. One example unearthed at Walton-le-Dale was richly decorated with a centaur, sea bull, panther and Mercury. The Roman road bypassed Preston, thus anticipating the construction in 1958 of the first motorway in Britain, the Preston bypass! The road proceeds onwards to Lancaster (called Galacum by the Romans). Here it travels north towards Hadrian’s Wall. There, many mortaria (kitchen vessels) have been found that were manufactured at Wilderspool, where our journey started. Like our motorways, Roman roads stimulated trade and prosperity.

-CHESTER/-CASTER/-CESTER

Place names ending in -chester/-caster/-cester/-ceister proclaim the site of a Roman fort. These endings are derived from the Latin word castra, meaning a camp. The first part of the name may be an adaptation of the Roman word of the fortification or a local place. Ribchester was therefore the site of a Roman fort on the banks of the River Ribble. Its Roman name was Bremetennacum Veteranorum (of the veterans) and indicates that it was eventually garrisoned by veteran soldiers. At first, soldiers were recruited from Spain and Hungary in accordance with the common Roman practice of using foreign, not local, troops to garrison their provinces. It may be that when the Hungarians retired, their home territory had been abandoned by the Romans in the meantime and they could not be returned to their homeland. They were therefore retained at Ribchester, which was accorded special status and importance and became a centre of the region.

UNDERFLOOR AIR VENTILATION

The fort housed a cavalry unit to maintain order and protect the Roman settlements. It was originally built in the AD 70s with a rampart of turf topped by a wooden palisade. Timber barracks were built and stables were constructed with timber stakes driven into the ground, walls made from wattle and daub, and straw floor coverings. The fortifications were extended and later replaced in stone along with the gatehouses, towers and main buildings to combat threats and uncertainties associated with the local tribe of the Brigantes. A stone slab records that the construction was carried out by a legion based in Chester, the ‘XX Valeria Victrix’ (Twentieth Victorious Valerian), probably in honour of a victory obtained under their commander Valerius. The fort was constructed in a Roman standard design for infantry and adapted for cavalry occupation. It contained three most important central elements: granaries with underfloor air ventilation, the commander’s house and a headquarters building where all the troops could assemble and be given their orders. Four stone columns from one of the buildings adorn the entrance to the White Bull pub in the village and there are mysterious Roman Tuscan columns in the church that may have come from the fort.

COME OUT OF THE FORT AND ENJOY YOURSELF IN OUR VILLAGE

Outside a fort a vicus (village) grew up that would develop into a thriving community of its own with links to the outside world.

You can imagine how they might advertise their attractions:

Do you want new armour and weapons? Our metal and leather workers will supply them.

Does your equipment need repairing? Our joinery shops offer excellent service.

Do you dream of shaking off the strict military discipline in the fort? Drink, gamble and socialise with us!

Are you tired of a standard military meat diet? Supplement it at our butchers with extra beef, mutton, pork, goatmeat, venison, fowl and fish.

Our bathhouse provides all the facilities a Roman soldier deserves: a changing room, cold plunge pool and three rooms heated by a furnace. Enjoy a hot water bath, a steamy sauna or a chat...

Produkt-Details

• Erscheint lt. Verlag: 5.12.2024
• Zusatzinfo: 30 mono
• Verlagsort: London
• Sprache: englisch
• Themenwelt: Sachbuch/Ratgeber ► Geschichte / Politik ► Regional- / Landesgeschichte
• Themenwelt: Sachbuch/Ratgeber ► Gesundheit / Leben / Psychologie ► Lebenshilfe / Lebensführung
• Themenwelt: Sonstiges ► Geschenkbücher
• Themenwelt: Geisteswissenschaften ► Geschichte ► Regional- / Ländergeschichte
• Schlagworte: bamber bridge • Blackburn • Blackpool • Burnley • Cavaliers • celtic lancashire • chorley • coal • coniston waterlake district • cotton • English Civil War • georgian lancashire • Industrial Revolution • lancashire history • Lancaster • lancastrian history • Leyland • Liverpool • lytham st anne's • Manchester • norman lancashire • Preston • river mersey • roman lancashire • Stuarts • victorian lancashire • Wars of the Roses • wigan
• ISBN-10: 1-80399-313-8 / 1803993138
• ISBN-13: 978-1-80399-313-3 / 9781803993133