Page:Roman Manchester (1900) by Charles Roeder.djvu/159

 I may also quote a remark of the Rev. H. A. Hudson: "Mr. Crowther [the architect who was in charge of the alterations of the Cathedral] admits the evidence of a Saxon church constructed with stone may 'appear too scanty to be conclusive,' and he remarks further on upon the singular absence of any Norman remains. The explanation of this singular absence of any remains, says Mr. Hudson, seems to be "that no such Saxon or Norman stone church ever existed, and that the church on this site, if any, previous to the Early English period, was not of stone, but of wood, according to Hollinworth's tradition, and the explanation becomes the more probable when it is remembered that great numbers of fragments of all sorts, from the Early English (1204–1265) and Decorated English (1265–1360) were found at various times," and no traces whatever before that, which practically means that there is no evidence of any stone structure in existence before the thirteenth century, neither of Saxon or Norman times; nor have we any record of rubble walls filled with gravel sand and boulder stones for foundations referable to these periods either here or elsewhere.

I think we have to correlate these old substructural rubble walls between the chapter house and the north turret (measuring on the west side 75 feet long and on the south side 56 feet long) with the foundation walls at the north side of the western tower (traced for 25 feet), and their composition makes them distinctly Roman; they are real repetitions of those met with at Castlefield, Deansgate. I have prepared a plan to show the situation and extent of these remnants.

We come now to the excavations made between the 26th and 31st July, 1900, at Chetham College, on the