Listed 15 sub titles with search on: Information about the place for wider area of: "LANCASHIRE County ENGLAND" .
ROSSENDALE (Town) ENGLAND
LANCASTER (Town) ENGLAND
Longovicium (Lanchester) Durham, England.
Roman fort of ca. 2.2 ha, 17 km N of Vinovia on Dere Street (NZ 159469). It was probably first occupied under Hadrian or Antoninus Pius, and garrisoned by Cohors I fida Vardullorum ca. A.D. 175 (RIB 1083). Reoccupied and rebuilt in the 3d c., perhaps from the reign of Gordian III (RIB 1091-92), when it was garrisoned by Cohors I Lingonum and also by a vexillatio Sueborum (RIB 1074). But in the 4th c. the garrison was a numerus identified only by the name of its station (numerus Longovicianorum). Metal-working was prominent in the village which grew up around the fort.
MANCHESTER (Town) ENGLAND
Mamucium (Manchester) Lancashire, England.
Site of an important fort and civil settlement at a major road junction. It has long been known that an auxiliary fort once lay at the W end of Deansgate in Manchester. The position of the 2.4 ha cite was typical, protected on three sides by the confluence of the Irwell and Medlock rivers. Recent demolition has allowed excavation along the N wall. The N gateway, the position of which shows that the via principalis ran on the E side of the principia, revealed two phases, one of timber, the other of stone, but a section across the defenses in 1966 suggested three phases. The turf front of the Flavian rampart was partly dismantled to fill the inner ditch when the (presumably Trajanic) stone revetment was added.
A second stone phase later replaced the first, perhaps in the Severan period. Modern disturbance makes it difficult to interpret the late history of the fort, but Manchester's position at the hub of a communications network must have maintained its importance. Sporadic finds made in the last century along the line of Deansgate indicate an extensive civil settlement E of the fort. As at Bremetennacum Veteranorum (Ribchester), an inscription implies that a centurio regionarius of the sixth legion from York was in command in the later empire, when Mamucium lay in Britannia Inferior. Finds from the military and civil sites are housed in various museums in Manchester.
G.D.B Jones, ed.
This text is from: The Princeton encyclopedia of classical sites,
Princeton University Press 1976. Cited Feb 2006 from
Perseus Project URL below, which contains bibliography & interesting hyperlinks.
RIBCHESTER (Town) ENGLAND
Bremetennacum veteranorum (Ribchester) Lancashire, England.
Important fort in the Ribble valley 12.8 km E of Preston. The SE third of the
fort platform has been eroded by the river and the central area is covered by
the present church, museum, and vicarage. To the N the modern village lies over
an extensive vicus, and the remains of a bath unit are partly visible. Ribchester
is one of the best known Roman forts in the Pennines, thanks to a number of inscriptions
as well as excavation.
The first fort in the Flavian period had an area of ca. 2.4 ha, which
the site retained throughout its history. The clay and turf rampart was set on
a timber corduroy and received a stone revetment at the end of the 1st c. At one
stage in its early history the garrison was formed by the second ala Asturum;
the famous parade helmet found in the river bank in the late 18th c. probably
belongs to an early phase. From the mid-2d c. on much more is known from epigraphic
sources. These attest the presence of an ala equitum Sarmatarum, the only unit
of Sarmatian heavy cavalry epigraphically known at a British fort, although Marcus
Aurelius transferred 5500 of them to Britain in A.D. 175. It is probably to this
phase that the stone granaries (exposed on the N side of the museum) belong, although
recent excavation shows that the barracks of this garrison were still of timber.
The fort has produced dedications to Severus, Caracalla, and Iulia Domna; the
latter joined in a dedication of A.D. 212, on which the name of the praetorian
governor of Britannia Inferior, perhaps the future Emperor Gordian I, was erased.
At this time, early in the 3d c. the site must by implication have
gained its full name. In the Ravenna Cosmography it is termed Bremetennacum Veteranorum,
namely a center for the Sarmatian veterans settling in the area after completion
of their military service. Two inscriptions indicate that a centurion drawn from
the sixth legion at York filled the role of centurio regionarius, or district
officer, in charge of the administrative area concerned, either the Fylde region
of the Lancashire plain or the Ribble valley. The garrison cannot have been maintained
at full strength in the late 3d and 4th c. Excavation has shown that the rear
of the fort did not contain barracks in the latest occupation period, when the
W gate was apparently blocked and the massive W ditch cut to the size now visible.
Outside the fort to the N timber buildings of Flavian and later date
have recently been excavated. They were part of the associated vicus in an area
that towards the end of the 2d c. was leveled to receive an extensive dump of
gravel. This is best interpreted as a parade ground, perhaps associated with the
arrival of the Sarmatian heavy cavalry garrison. Farther E cremation burials belonging
to an early cemetery have been found. Elsewhere remains certainly extend under
most of the present village; the vicus appears to have extended along the main
road to the N over Longridge Fell and the Forest of Bowland. The remains of baths
follow the normal Roman pattern, with the addition of a circular laconicum. There
is evidence to suggest the existence of an earlier bath house associated with
the Flavian phase sealed beneath the present visible remains. An inscription also
implies the existence of a substantial temple.
The length of military occupation at Ribchester attests its strategic
importance, at the point where the Flavian military route from Manchester to Carlisle
crossed another important road running E-W along the Ribble-Aire corridor. Evidence
suggests that a signaling system, comparable with the example known across Stainmore
farther N in the Pennines, existed along one or both these lines. The signal station
serving Ribchester has been recognized on the crest of Mellor Hill 3.2 km S of
the fort.
G.D.B. Jones, ed.
This text is from: The Princeton encyclopedia of classical sites,
Princeton University Press 1976. Cited Feb 2006 from
Perseus Project URL below, which contains bibliography & interesting hyperlinks.
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