A piece of leaden water-piping discovered in Eastgate Street, Chester,
bears the name of Julius Agricola. Agricola was made Governor of Britain
in A.D. 78. Tacitus, a Roman historian, who married Agricola's daughter,
wrote a life of his father-in-law and a narrative of his work in
Britain. From his writings we learn that Agricola first turned his
attention to the fierce tribe of the Brigantes who inhabited the hilly
districts of Yorkshire, Lancashire, and North-East Cheshire.
Agricola made the preparations for his expedition at Chester, which
became his head-quarters, and built the fortified outposts of Mancunium
on the Irwell and Melandra on the Derbyshire bank of the River Etherow,
connecting them with one another with new roads. Both Mancunium and
Melandra have been excavated in recent years, and at the latter you may
see the foundations of portions of the wall laid bare, and the base of
one of the principal gateways leading into the fort.
A Roman camp was usually square, with the corners slightly rounded, as
has been proved by the excavations at Melandra and by the piece of Roman
wall lately discovered at Chester, which shows a distinct curve towards
the Pepper Gate. Roads crossed the camp at right angles. The wall or
'vallum' was protected when necessary by a fosse or ditch, but Agricola
chose his positions with such care that one side at least was usually
already guarded by the waters of some stream. Watch-towers were placed
at the corners and on either side of the gateways.
Chester still preserves the shape and plan of the Roman fortress. Its
four main streets, which are hewn out of the sandstone on which the
city is built, cross each other at right angles. The Welsh called it
Caer Lleon or Lleon Vawr--the 'Camp of the Legion'. The present walls
are not, however, the work of the Romans, though here and there they
have been proved to have been built on the foundations of the Roman
walls. The lowest courses of the North Wall near the Deanery Field, when
excavated, were found to be faced with massive stones of Roman masonry,
with a Roman 'plinth' running along the base. The stones fit very
closely together and no mortar was used. The inside of the wall was
filled with rubble.
From time to time portions of Roman wall have been found in other parts
of the city. One big piece is in the cellars of Dickson's seed
warehouse. When the foundations of the offices of the National Telephone
Company in John Street were being excavated a year or two ago, a fine
piece of Roman wall was unearthed. The builders have left it standing
where they found it, and you may now see it in the basement of the
building, protected from future harm by an iron grid.
On the Roodee is a portion of Roman masonry of finely jointed stones
which is thought to have been the quay of the Roman city.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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