Page:Roman Manchester (1900) by Charles Roeder.djvu/38

 The stations at Ribchester, Melandra, and Manchester were no doubt all built on the same general plan, and turrets must have existed at our station on the remaining three angles. Traces of the turret situated in the north-west angle in Manor Street, which part is still unexplored and little interfered with, may yet be found at a future time, when the property on the north-west side of the station will be pulled down.

—Inside the present timber-yard, about 48 yards to the west of the eastern gate, in a central position, we have still preserved the remains of the wall of a building which, judging from its situation, indicates doubtlessly the site of the prætorium; the wall still rises about 26 inches from the ground, its thickness is yet 2 feet wide, and its length 20 feet. Unfortunately, this old monument of Roman times is fast crumbling away for insufficient shelter, and the rainwater is slowly but surely disintegrating and dissolving the piece away, as I have convinced myself from recent examination.

The prætorium at Melandra is similarly placed and measures 25 yards square, the inner walls 2 feet and the outer walls 3 feet thick. In its rear it has three additional buildings, analogy leads us to think that the same arrangement prevailed here.

The construction of the Altrincham railway in 1849, which diagonally cut through the whole area of the castrum from east to west, destroyed and effaced whatever foundations were in existence, and narrow-minded officialism prevented antiquaries from entering the precincts to note the many discoveries which are sure to have been made. To formulate any idea of the internal