Page:History of Manchester (1771), Volume 1, by John Whitaker.djvu/199

 A7 * T»:E HISTORY BookL The fiptrqfs «f Manounjup* appears, to have had: three caftm m it;s Beighbo^rlK^d, and ajl upon thgtbiee roads from it to VJdey to Buxton and to Slack. • 0#e Qf thefe wa§ at Little-, borough^ the fecondat CajQtlefliaw, and. the thifd wHanford* Th$ little ftation at Caftle&aw is ver# evident; on ther prefect fjack of the road ta Slack; a iecond ftatyoa was certainly planted at Hanford ; and thefe neceffarily lead us to expe& another upoa the other road, a fortrefs conftru&ed upon a fimilar fite and cal- culated for a fimilar pprpgfe. Fa^ convinces us of the one, and analogy requires the other. The caftrum at Caftie&aw is feated dire&ly at the foot of Stap^dge,. and, within a, couple of furlongs frqmjthe track of t£ie Romaa road* Thi* have evinced before to have been in all probability a pre- vious fortrefs of the Siftuntii, but to have extended, along alt jthe large area which rifes eminent over the reft of the ground, arid which i& all equally denominated The Hus-fteads and is all equally, defined by th$ Caftle-hiils. The later fortrefs feems to have been contracted into a much narrower compafs, and to. have been inclofed within the foflf that ftill plainly appears en«* circling a rounded eminence near the r centpr and encompafUng about three-fourths of a ftatute-acre. The caftrunv at Lktle- borough muft have given denomination to the village, and feems, to have been fixed upon the ground which is about half a milft to the eaft of it, which is immediately on .the teft. of the new: road, and which is popularly denominated Caftle, This* i* dirc&ly under the fteep of Blackftone-Edge, nearly adjoining to the courfe of the Roman road, and upon the margin of a brifk ftreara. And the fortification ^rhtch gave name to the ground is of fo anttent a date, thaj; both the remains of it havfi va- nished- from the eye and. tradition} has forgotten its exigence. But we have better evidences of a little ftation. at Hanford^ The Roman toad from Manchefter to Buxtoa runs confiderabl jr to the we^ of its general.direftion from Stockport, in-order tQ touch t at lbme intermediate ftation* It prqeeeda by Pepper-ftreefc fold in Bremhall and it patffes over Streetfields beyond, it^ pour- ing plainly towards Hanford-mtll on the Bollen* And Hanford appears clearly to have had three or four roads of the Roman* diverging;