Page:Roman Manchester (1900) by Charles Roeder.djvu/164



We see from the other section, taken at right angles, that the boulder road rested on an ancient, much earlier excavated fosse, which was cut at a very steep angle into the native rock, showing towards its southern margin the black sediment which was quietly accumulating at the bottom (the black mass contains a large admixture of fine sand grains), 12 inches thick, while the 30 inch sand, which is sandwiched between the base of the boulder road and the black deposit, points to a later stage, when it was filled up for the posterior construction of the boulder road which traverses it at this point. Whitaker mentions that in 1765, at the grammar school, a channel was found through the rock in the cellar, 3 yards wide and 2 yards deep, "filled with an unctuous mass and then sand." This channel, or fosse, which he calls "the Prætorium foss," in his "Plan of the Summer Station," is, of course, as we can see, the same fosse rediscovered now at its western side. Let me recapitulate now.

At Hanging Bridge (spanning the original gully or clough) we have at a depth of 20 feet Roman glass and a Roman brass (date 137–138 ); a little further down, towards the river, or river ferry, at the margin of the Irwell, we have Roman coins (306–340 ).

At Cathedral Street a patch of Roman surface with contemporaneous British and Roman pottery.

At the Cathedral, under the foundation of the western tower, old Roman clay and boulder foundations, at the depth of 6 feet, and a cement flooring; on the eastern part of the cathedral we find rectangular remains of an old substructure of rubble walls, 4 feet below,